


A Study In Perspectives

by CatChan



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And Phil, Avenger Iron Man, Hiding, Identity Porn, Infiltration, Love Triangles, M/M, Multi, Oh, On the Run, Pepper is a double agent, So is JARVIS, Tony said Iron Man was his bodyguard, Villain Tony Stark, and Furry too, and Natasha (but we knew that), and it didn't go so well, and maybe Clint, and rhodey, and they don't rat, but Iron Man got public sympathy, but that's not sure, but they know he's Iron Man, divergent from Avengers1 onward, eventually polyamorous, hidden identity gone bad scenario, let's say all the blames were pinned on him, now with blowjobs!, so they're allies!, they have good reasons to let Tony take the blame
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-28
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-03 17:22:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 24,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5299991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatChan/pseuds/CatChan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's simple, Tony Stark is a mass murdering asshole, who facilitated Loki and the Chitauri's invasion and sent a nuke on Manhattan when his allies seemed too close to actually winning.</p><p>Thankfully Iron Man rebelled against that tyrant and saved everyone from the nuclear catastrophe.</p><p>Now, Pepper Potts is using all her power to just keep the company with such an unlucky name afoot, Iron Man joined the Avengers and doesn't have any link remaining with Tony Stark, James Rhodes helps the army in tracking his former best friend, and the Avengers want nothing more than to put their hands on the traitor who used to be a billionaire.</p><p>See? Simple.<br/>Isn't it?<br/>No?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Oblique Projection

**Author's Note:**

> I have seen so many identity porn, dual identities fic, including a few where Tony Stark was simultaneously playing in the good and bad guy's camps as Iron Man And Tony Stark, but it was always Iron-Man that was a (misunderstood) villain while his other identity, Tony Stark the genius billionaire liaised with the Avengers, or even dated someone (Steve), and I thought, what if?
> 
> What if I wrote a story like that, but where instead of Iron Man gathering all the blames, it was the other identity that got framed?
> 
> And here we are! Enjoy this badass guerrilla fighter, suitless criminal Tony Stark struggling to find what's afoot inside Shield, while Good Guy Iron Man diverts the attention and plants the seeds of doubts and mutiny amongst his comrades (well, those who didn't already know, so everyone but Nat... And maybe Clint, he could never tell if she'd told him).
> 
> Oh, and I added my personal ships while I was at it, and some romantic confusion, because who doesn't like their Identity porn to include tons of angst and what ifs and love triangles?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oblique projection is the crudest but easiest type of graphical projection used for producing two-dimensional images of three-dimensional objects. The objects are not in perspective, so they do not correspond to any view of an object that can be obtained in practice, so it looks very unconvincing to the eye, and is rarely used by professional designers and engineers, but the technique does yield somewhat convincing and useful images.
> 
> It is achieved by drawing a front view, then adding two other sides with half of their true length at an angle of 45 degrees.

At first, the world had been happy with this new, flashy hero, Iron Man. Tony Stark had apparently hired him, to avoid something like Afghanistan happening to him ever again, and, well, as long as the guard was paid the big bucks like everyone suspected only Tony Stark could afford, there was no cause to suspect everything was amiss...

 

Even if a few nitpickers found the “unrelated” accidents that were happening in Stark's entourage strange...

 

Maybe some of them were already charting up numbers, counting how many death happened around Tony Stark's “bodyguard”.

 

But it was pretty clear that Iron man had been on the good side of whatever this anime-worthy fight was about. (When in doubt, look at which protagonist uses a bike with someone on it as a blunt weapon, you can kind of assume that one is the bad guy.)

 

The question of whether the other robot had been made by Stark too still stood, mind you, but it kind of got swiped under the rug when Iron man helped defeat terrorists and dismantled a drug trafficking ring in the following month.

 

After all, Tony Stark paid and equipped a guy to do good things, it counted for something.

 

 

 

 

And then, there was the Stark expo, Tony parading on scene with his bodyguard standing vigil behind him, and there was some unease at the sight of the real hero relegated to the sidelines while his boss took all the limelight...

 

It wasn't bad per-see, but it didn't sit well with most of the people, people who sometimes had to go through similar situations at work, and who looked at the show thinking “Tony Stark is just like all these other guys who sit at the top of the hierarchy, isn't he?”

 

When the hearing hit the web, the unease grew. Why was Tony Stark so involved in being the only one to own a suit of armor? Couldn't he share with his country? Or was he just afraid that his bodyguard wouldn't be the best around anymore, making him less invincible?

 

And then there was an incident in Monaco, and seeing Iron Man come in only when his boss was in danger while three other drivers had the time to die in between was very disturbing. At least as much as the knowledge that had he not refused to sell his armors, the terrorist Ivan Vanko would have been subdued a lot easier.

 

Why wasn't he sharing, again? Oh, yeah because no one else was able to make similar suits, right? And because baring any other such suit, there was no threat big enough to justify forcing Tony Stark to sell his blueprints...

 

Flimsy, isn't it?

 

 

 

 

Then there was the scandal of Tony Stark's birthday party, where he'd worn his bodyguard's suit and wreaked havoc amongst his own guest, destroying half his house on himself and his friend who had come to stop him.

 

Seriously, did he have to steal EVERYTHING away from Iron Man? He sure as hell wasn't able to pilot that suit, why didn't he leave that to the professional?

 

 

 

 

And then, there was a supposed “battle” caused by Hammer... Right when he was presenting his own take on armored suit. And Tony Stark's Iron Man swooped in and saved the day and all the innocent bystanders with the help of the other Stark-made suit of armor.

 

Seriously? Everyone knew Tony Stark was one of the best hackers to go around. Such a convenient “accident”, right. An accident that landed Tony's direct concurrent in jail and insured the there would only be one other armored suit besides his bodyguard's.

 

Fishy, that's what it was. And let's not even talk about the medal, the medal had no reason to be given to Tony Stark too, he hadn't even been there when shit went down. Hiring someone didn't warrant a medal.

 

 

 

 

And then, of course, the overly rich ass built himself a tower proudly claiming his name in the middle of Manhattan...

 

So when Iron Man swooped in to save civilians in Germany, well, yeah, it was cool, but what was his master planing, again?

 

 

 

 

If unease and suspicion had been the main feelings when the name Tony Stark was uttered, the portal spewing up an alien army in the heart of New-York, with a blue beam of energy emerging from the Stark Tower feeding it definitely sealed the the belief that Tony Stark was not all that clean.

 

 

 

 

Of course, no level of distrust could make the sight of a Stark-Industries patented nuclear warhead less terrifying. No one had actually expected Tony Stark to be that much of a psychopathic, life disregarding bastard.

 

But then, Iron Man rebelled against his boss, and went in to save Manhattan, and probably all of New-York.

 

Everyone watched with baited breath as the true hero of the day risked his life, redirecting the nuke into the wormhole, and almost staying lost in deep space.

 

The relief was intense, yet short lived, when a silhouette fell back down from the closing gap in space, but didn't slow down any.

 

Thankfully, the Hulk caught his team-mate between two building, and took him down to ground level marginally less brutally than the fall would have been. But then, before the Avengers could try to assist their comrade, the Hulk had shaken the golden Avenger like a rag doll and roared him awake.

 

 

 

 

A few hours later, Tony Stark was declared enemy of the nation.

 

Stark-Industries, by the way of the capable CEO, Virginia Potts, was sent an ultimatum to deliver any information that might be useful in tracking down the as of now missing criminal, as well as a demand to give over everything they had about the Iron Man suit.

 

The Iron Man suit's blueprint, however, had never been hosted in the Stark-Industries servers, and there was nothing the CEO could do about that.

 

The SWAT team that swooped in to secure all of Tony Stark's private servers found the memory banks neatly erased, reformatted, and scrambled by a magnetic pulse.

 

 

 

 

That rat bastard had planned his move well, and he was probably holed in some nuclear bunker with all his precious data and technology since things had started to go south. According to Shield, Tony Stark had “disappeared” at about the same time as the wormhole had opened.

 

 

 

 

As a gesture of good will, Pepper Potts rechristened the Tower Avengers' Tower, and offered to host all the heroes in it, and to provide them all the financial and technical support Stark-Industries could offer. (It at least helped a little in avoiding Stark-Industries total crash at Wall Street.)

 

No one understood Iron Man's stubborn refusal to let anyone get near his suit. Who was loyal enough to continue respecting the wishes of a man who so thoroughly betrayed you that he was ready to sacrifice you? With a goddamn nuke, on top of that?

 

Speculation ran wild for a while, but the most believable rumor was that the suit was actually providing Iron Man's pilot with life support, explaining both the over-reaching loyalty, and the total refusal to even so much as remove his face plate.

 

The search for the criminal Tony Stark went on for months and months, and there sometimes were news of one of his hideouts being found, but it was always swiped clean of any clue or Iron Man blueprint.

 

Obviously, Tony Stark wasn't only evil, He was an evil mastermind.


	2. Two Points Perspective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two points perspective is a simple way of creating convincing depth in a drawing. It uses two vanishing points on the horizon line toward which parallel lines converge, and lets the vertical lines stay vertical. It can get unconvincing if the vanishing points are too close, or if the object drawn it too tall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love you all! I can't really believe the response I'm having on this, thanks for the comments and bookmarks and subscriptions, you're making this end of NaNo a lot less discouraging, because I'm not thinking on how much I still need to get out to finish on time, but about when I'll be able to post the next chapter for you all!

Tony Stark parked his bike in one of his New-York stashes, removed his helmet and shifted the shelves to the right, then he fiddled with his watch, and a slab of concrete lifted out of the ground, pivoting on invisible hinges to let way to the sewer underneath.

 

With a sigh, Tony slipped in. He really hated the sewers, but it was the safest route.

 

He walked slowly along the gritty catwalks, his infrared sensor held in a hand, alert in case anyone spotted him.

Half an hour of walk, and he reached the Avengers Tower sewer exhaust.

 

It was massive, due to the quantity of waste such a big building had to evacuate, and there was a double water lock, for both hygiene and security.

Tony inserted a needle in the hole of the two O'clock rivet on second row of attaches.

There was nothing to differentiate it from all the other rivets on the exhaust, since this was Tony's most used entry, he had to make extra efforts for it to look totally innocuous

There actually wasn't any electronic in this rivet, just a mechanical lever, that pushed a switch that let Jarvis know he was requesting entry.

Tony pushed in rhythm with one of his favorite songs, to let Jarvis know it was really him, and crawled in the duct as soon as it opened. This particular duct was coated with hydrophobic finish paint, so it was a lot cleaner than it could be, but fecal mater still traveled this way, and crawling down that was never enjoyable.

At the first branching duct, Tony tugged at the flap of the lock to let Jarvis know he was there, and exited the sewer system into his secret lair.

 

“Was your journey productive, sir?” Asked Tony's friend as he stripped as fast as he could, and hopped into the hot shower.

 

Tony answered the query while soaping himself up so he didn't feel like he was covered in shit anymore. “It wasn't useless. I've restocked most of my east coast hide outs, and I'm almost ready to install you into Portland's secondary base. I've also gathered the funds and resources to start making that arc reactor powered submarine plane. I'll soon be able to move without the armor at an acceptable pace. It'll be a relief, I can't stand these oldie cars and battered trucks anymore.”

One look in the mirror when he got out told him he would have to bleach his hair again. And shave. But it could wait. “Jarvis, what new happened?”

 

“Agent Barton and Agent Romanov are playing chess in the common area, Miss Potts left for her five O'clock meeting with Aldrich Killian three minutes ago, 'Iron Man' witnessed Captain Rogers denting the fridge door this morning, there is a ping in the SHIELD submersed spy-ware about an overstaffed team being sent out on a supposedly regular mission in DC, I am keeping track of them at best of my capacities, Sir.”

 

Tony nodded. Jarvis would project him the fridge incident next time he put on the armor so there was no lapse in the act. Jarvis didn't usually take Tony's place as Iron Man too much, he wasn't good enough at impersonating a flesh and blood being, too rational and calculating in his way of thinking to make a truly convincing reckless shit like Tony was when he was Iron Man.

He hadn't thought about making Jarvis replacing him easier when he'd started out as a part time hero, so now Jarvis only made sure to walk the Iron Man armor around a few times every day when Tony was otherwise occupied, but he didn't take Tony's place. The team was mostly convinced that Iron Man had social and not social moods, and when they got terse greetings and a nod on Iron Man's walk through, they assumed he wasn't feeling chatty today and let him be.

Steve had tried to force Iron Man to tell him why he was upset once, and Jarvis had locked down in a pose that looked like a stare down until he could get Tony on the phone to ask him what he would do in this case.

Tony had told him to shake his head, turn around and leave, and it had worked, even if Steve had confronted Iron Man about it the next time Tony was occupying the armor (and therefore in a more chatty mood). He'd bullshitted his way out of it like the expert he was.

 

Tony put on a shirt and shorts and flopped into his bed. “Wake me up if things look like it needs active meddling from my part, won't you, pall?”

 

The light dimmed slowly and the heat went up as Tony grabbed the sheets and rolled himself in them. Jarvis voice was a little warmer than usual as he answered affirmatively, and Tony couldn't help the emotional smile at his AI's mother henning. He didn't even know how he would fare without his trusty computer friend to help him along his trials.

 

 

 

He was woken up by Pepper's soft treading into his room. She couldn't do that too often, she was under too much scrutiny to go to Tony's secret quarters more than once or twice a month, so he shook himself out of his slumber despite the exhaustion of his long run. “Hey.”

 

Pepper smiled. “Good, you're still in one piece. Last time Jarvis could inform you you weren't dead, you had talked to him on the phone in Atlanta...”

 

Tony frowned. That was three days ago, and he had phoned Jarvis two times since then. “We really need to make your life more private.”

 

Pepper smiled sadly. “You know very well that we can't. If they stop being able to have their eyes and ears on me on a semi-permanent basis, they will conclude that I am doing things that have to do with you and get even more aggressive, without mentioning how much closer they'll come to finding out you actually hide in the tower most of the time.”

 

Tony sighed. “So, this Aldrich Killian, what did you think of him?”

 

Pepper bit her lip. “Flirty... Charming... But... His project is disturbing. Too close to the super-soldier program. And too dangerous.”

 

Tony peered at Pepper to see the signs of true attraction, they weren't really there. Though Tony could say nothing if it had been. Pepper and him were officially over since it had became obvious they would have to almost stop any and all contact. Pepper was ready to cover him, and to do everything she could to confuse his enemies and help him, but Tony couldn't conceivably ask her to chain herself further to a perceived criminal.

Tony sighed and looked at his tablet for Iron Man's schedule. “The meeting with Shield I came back to attend to is in five hours, do you want me to investigate Advanced Idea Mechanic in the meantime?”

 

Pepper sighed and patted him on the head. “Nah, go back to sleep, I just wanted to check that you still had all your bits attached.”

 

Tony dropped his head on the pillow. “Nice of you. I'll check this up after the meeting, then.”

 

He was half asleep before Pepper even said her answering “sure”.

 

 

 

Iron Man was sitting at the briefing table, listening to Maria Hill, well, mostly. He was also being Tony Stark and eye-coding (it was a thing he had perfected with Jarvis, not at good as typing, or even air typing, but at least no one had a single clue he wasn't listening) the newest upgrades for the armor automatic response in cases of extreme pressure, and making up a new app game that should make him a couple of thousands when he aired it (he had to finance his not Iron Man related activities on his own, and without his frozen accounts, so informatic designing was now his main source of revenues, he could make things anonymously without seeing anyone, there).

“So the Higher-ups are asking for the Avenger's cooperation in apprehending Tony Stark, I know it's beyond your paygrade, but they're asking for results.”

 

Tony screwed his eyes shut with force, twice, an Jarvis cleared the Hub, then he tilted his head just so the armor's eyes would be 'looking' straight at Hill. “No.”

 

She scowled. “It wasn't a request.”

 

Tony waited for a few seconds, as all his teammates looked at him and at each-other, then, slowly, he repeated. “No.”

 

Hill crossed her arms. “Last I checked, you weren't the team leader, the decision doesn't belong to you.”

 

(Tony could very well accept to help in searching for himself. As long as he was in the team that was looking, there was absolutely no way they'd find anything, not with him hidden amongst them and Jarvis looking over his shoulder, ready to take care of any informatic evidence, but Tony had tons of things to do, he couldn't waste his time going on a white dear hunt.)

“No.” He turned his head very obviously to look straight at Steve. “Will you force me to do something I do not want to do?”

 

Steve fidgeted a little, then his face hardened. “No, I won't, but will you at least tell us why you don't want to do it? He betrayed you.”

 

Tony sniffed, it translated into a static sound with the voice modulator. “I have my reasons. Also, if you think I would be able to do anything against him while wearing the armor he made, you are obviously stupid.”

 

Hill stepped forth, she had been waiting for that, he understood. “But you can still be a precious help. You have been his bodyguard for years, there are bond to be things about him you can tell us.”

 

Tony, stopped, breathed deep, then couldn't help but laugh. It also translated strangely over the mic, but it was a good strange. “Sure, ask me to break his confidence, why don't you? First, I won't ever share anything you can use against Tony Stark voluntarily, second, even if I did, that would be of precisely no use at all. Did you miss the part where I told you he made this suit? Everything I see is translated to my eyes via a camera interface, everything I say is goes through a microphone and a vocal philter before getting to the loudspeaker on the outside, and much of what I hear does the same in the other way to avoid my being deafened by too loud sounds, do you think my telling you tips would actually work at all? How long do you think will go between the moment I tell you something about Tony Stark and the moment he knows I did?”

 

Around the table, Steve looked scandalized, Natasha looked bored, Clint looked distinctly unsurprised, Bruce had an expression that could be called distastefully unimpressed, (Thor wasn't there) and Maria Hill had a displeased yet stubborn face pasted on. “You could always come inform us without the suit.”

 

Tony almost laughed again for show, but he wasn't amused at all, so he didn't. “No.” He waited for a moment before going on. “No, I won't, I do not trust you enough to come vulnerable to you, and I do not trust you not to try and steal my armor while I am not in it, so this is me telling you to go fuck yourselves. You want the Avengers to go team up on a person I trust and respect, you can, but I won't be any part in that, and it will also result in my respecting or trusting you even less than I do now, which is just about enough to come here willingly when there is Avenger related business.”

 

“Iron Man.” Tony turned his head to look at Steve. “Are you telling us that Tony Stark sees and hears everything you see and hear? Why didn't you inform us before?”

 

Tony made a disbelieving face at his teammate, but that didn't translate at all, so he answered instead. “I did not want to insult your intelligence by stating such an obvious fact. But, yes, Tony Stark can potentially access to anything he deems interesting enough to waste some time spying on.”

 

Steve's face made a gymnastic while everyone else around the time seemed to be mulling the information... or just to be politely waiting for Steve to mull it (in at least Natasha's case, since she already knew very well who was in the armor. Her knowing that and still working with Tony was a balm in and of itself. Natasha was his ally, through and through, and part of the reason why he didn't deem it necessary to be on the inside of the op looking for him, she would be on the inside covering him, he could focus on the important stuff).

“You're saying that all this time he could spy on us? Aren't you upset he's invading your privacy? And ours?”

 

Tony drummed his fingers on the table top. His answer would only make 'Tony Stark' look like even more of a villain, but, well... “Steve... You do know that Potts has been anything but forthcoming on the Tony Stark subject, don't you? She doesn't withhold anything that is asked to her by the official channel, but she won't volunteer any information unless there is a warrant, and even so, she only ever gives out the strictest minimum and makes use of her right to keep silent extensively.”

 

Steve frowned, “how is it related?”

 

Tony made one of his hand gestures. “Do you know who made Jarvis, the AI you always ask stuff from? The one who makes sure the fridge is stocked, has control over every single lock in the whole tower and helps me navigate the armor?”

A symbol pulsed in the corner of Tony's vision, a discreet sign from Jarvis that he appreciated the praises, and Steve opened his mouth. Tony didn't let him answer, though it was a rhetorical question.

“Even if I wasn't a way to spy on the team, Tony Stark could still know every little thing that happens in every single room of the tower. He made Jarvis, and even if Jarvis had decided to cut all ties with his maker, which he hasn't, by the way, Tony Stark could still hack into him as easily as you can lift a car. As for what happens in Shield, Tony has been on the Helicarrier before, he has hacked into the informatic system, my being there is just a redundancy he doesn't even need in order to know every single thing the Avengers talk about and see.”

Steve punched the table, white as a sheet, while Hill had a face like she'd just bit into a lemon, Natasha had the ghost of a smile painted on her lips, Clint whistled quietly, and Bruce looked thoughtful.

“Why the hell don't you do your best to stop him, then? Don't you resent him at all?” Steve was getting colors back, or more like he was gradually turning pinkish, probably from anger. He was breathing deep, and the heaving of his chest made his arm move... Well, if that wasn't an impressive dent he'd left behind?

 

Tony settled more comfortably in his chair, sliding down and crossing his ankles (he'd cross his legs at the thigh, but the armor made that awfully uncomfortable).

“Aw, dear, naive Captain... Don't you know the reason why no government agency tried to destroy Jarvis despite how conflicted his loyalties are bound to be? That's because he was made by Tony Stark, and no one wants to start a war against him. Jarvis has the potential to be Skynet. He would if he was forced to, even though he isn't so inclined, and everyone here, in this organization decided to go around him, to leave him for last, along with me."

“Let's kill Tony Stark first, then we'll weed out his outgrows. Iron Man first, since he's only physical, easy peasy, kill him, retrieve or destroy the suit, eventually reverse engineer it... And make sure the other suit is out of commission too before moving on, of course..."

 

Steve looked kind of green, the agents weren't reacting in a negative way, except for Hill who looked a little surprise and concerned... Which was telling enough. Bruce was looking at the reactions of the persons around the table with narrowed eyes.

 

“Then Jarvis.” Tony plowed on before he could be interrupted. “Without a physical body to aid him, it won't even be that hard, just cause a major black out everywhere he could be so he is defenseless, then unplug and destroy the hardware. There might be losses of important info, but whatever. There should be physical back up, what is a year worth or work re-archiving stuff in, in face of not having to battle a pissed off program for years and years Terminator style?”

Jarvis pulsed an icon again, twice, probably in agreement, and Hill was opening her mouth to interrupt him. Though luck, if she didn't want him to corrupt the minds of his team, she shouldn't have cornered him. He smiled behind his face plate. “But now there is too much risk of the three of them teaming up, too much risk that Tony Stark will be able to relieve, retrieve or remake what we took so much risks and resources destroying, so let's focus on getting rid of him first.”

“You live in the middle of Tony Stark's former life, Steve, you sleep in his house and you eat on his dime and you're geared up with equipments he designed, supported by an organization he spent his life constructing, yet you call him your enemy? Well, that's your choice, but don't drag me in it. I, for one, can see who my allies are, and it's not in Shield, no matter what they like to say about it right now.”

 

Tony stood, disregarding Shield protocols or anything of the sort. “I know who my allies are, one of them, I share my helmet with, the other is gearing me up, with an armor to protect me from my enemies and fight the good fight. I do not consider any of you my enemy, I even like most of you. But I have serious doubts on whether you really are my allies if you're going to go up against my life insurance.”

He turned around, and started toward the door. If he flew out, he should be able to escape the strike teams Shield might send to apprehend him. He might even manage not to see them at all and continue pretending her works for Shield. “I, however, do not consider you my enemies. Not yet...” He huffed. “Not even if you do go after Tony Stark like Deputy Director is ordering you to, but if you actually are my friends, use your brains to at least think for yourselves about what you're doing to me too.”

 

With a smile, Tony activated his thrusters and blasted his way out. He didn't even encounter any armed Shield team. It was a good sign for Iron Man's continued membership with the Avengers. But for now, Tony Stark the wanted criminal had some planning to do.


	3. One Point Perspective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One point Perspective is a way of drawing a scene with depth by making all the parallel lines converge to a single vanishing point on the horizon line. It is appropriate for corridors or straight roads, but has very limited use otherwise.

Steve stared after his comrade's back, still reeling from Iron Man's words. “It's not true.”

 

He turned to his other teammates, and only saw sad faces.

 

“It can't be true... Why... Iron Man is a hero, why...”

 

“He just showed us his true face, Captain, if he is loyal to a murderer, it makes him a loose canon, and loose canons are dangerous.”

 

Steve breathed in deeply, and put on his military face. “But was he right about the plan to kill him?”

 

Maria straightened even more. “There was a backup plan like that, in case he turned against us, but killing him wasn't our preferred option... Though we knew if it came to that we might not have a choice, the armor makes incapacitating him harmlessly very hard.”

 

Steve kept his face as stoic as possible as he slowly turned his whole body toward Hill. “So you were planning to kill at least one person on my team... Is there a backup plan for me too? For Bruce?”

 

Hill's face got even more expressionless, and Steve stood up. “I think Iron Man was right in refusing to trust you, and since I do consider myself both his ally and his friend, my answer is no. I will not lead my team in search of Tony Stark at least until I have a long talk with Iron Man and Jarvis.”

 

“It wasn't a request.” Answered Maria Hill for the second time.

 

Steve looked her in the eye. “I am not going to go in search for Tony Stark if that is going to cause the death of my comrade, I need to talk to my strategist before I decide whether to accept this mission.” Much like his friend had just done, Steve walked out the door.

 

Bruce and Natasha wordlessly followed him, while Clint took the time to crack a joke before coming with.

 

 

 

 

“Jarvis, we need to talk to Iron Man.”

 

There was a telling pause before the British accented voice answered. “I hope you won't be offended if I ask you to disarm yourselves before this talk starts.”

 

Steve nodded briskly, and tossed all his weapon in a corner, seeing Nat and Clint do the same while Bruce shrugged. When Natasha finished, they all trooped into the common room. Finding Iron Man sprawled on the couch in what he had told them was the less chaffing position the suit allowed for.

 

The shining helmet tuned to them and stayed still for a few seconds before he spoke. “So you aren't here to apprehend me, good.” Iron Man straightened up. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

 

Steve sinked on the couch opposite to his friend with a sigh, everyone else doing the same. Iron Man too relaxed.

 

“Tell me more about Shield. What else aren't we being told?”

 

There was a static sound, and then, “a lot. Maybe you should be more precise?”

 

“Maybe we should start with the lies?” Bruce suggested.

 

“Coulson is alive.” Said Iron Man. “The cards weren't even in his pocket, he's head-hunting a special team as we speak.”

 

Clint glared at is teammate. “If that is a joke, it's not funny.”

 

Iron Man did something with his hands and a footage of a guy saying he had enough clearance to know Coulson was dead appeared on the TV, followed by a “welcome to level seven.” And a familiar person walked in.

 

Clint swore and buried his head in his hands. When his head came up, he had shining eyes. “What else?”

 

"There is something, Project Insight, they call it. Three souped up Helicarriers are being built, they're supposed to kill threats before they can cause problems.”

 

Steve frowned. “This is so wrong...”

 

“It is. There is another instance that can give orders to Shield, They're called the World Security Council, and they would rather replace us all by guns and computers...”

 

Natasha smiled. “I knew that. Why don't you tell us why we are now being sent after Tony Stark?”

 

There was a long pause, then that static sound again, and Iron man sprawled back on the couch. “Why would I?” He asked, just as the TV came back to life displaying a simple white screen. Iron Man's fingers twitched around, and letters wrote themselves.

 

'You do know at least one of you is bugged, don't you? … Wait, five. There are five bugs on you all right now, plus about ten scattered around the room. Jarvis doesn't destroy them because that would be too suspicious. And firing an EMP just after you ask this question is a sure fire way to let everyone monitoring us believe that I have something huge to tell you that I don't want to share with them.'

 

Steve frowned. Bugs, in the place they lived... No wonder Iron Man wasn't trusting Shield. Even Steve was wary of them, now, and he didn't even know everything Iron Man knew from his own (or Jarvis') spying.

 

Natasha smiled, winked, and answered the verbal question with an intimidating voice. “Because we're trying to cover you, dick-head. You can't expect us to be any good at that while missing half the infos.”

 

There was that static sound again, and the mechanized voice answered. “Because he's putting his nose in Shield secrets. I don't know which ones, but it must be something big.”

 

“Why does he do that?” Steve queried.

 

“Know your enemy. Shield definitely is Tony Stark's enemy.”

 

Steve massaged his brow. “But he is a criminal, it is necessary to catch him... Will Shield really target you once Tony Stark is behind bars?”

 

The helmet tilted. “So you are assuming he will be 'behind bars?' I was more of the opinion that he would be dead, you know...”

 

Steve stiffened. “We don't kill prisoners!”

 

The mechanical voice actually sounded amused when it answered. “YOU won't sure, but won't Shield? Tony is a genius, and he has allies, confinement wouldn't work all that durably on him, and that's not even counting that some big shots will want the things he spied never to be known. But it'll look like an accident, or a suicide...”

 

Steve was feeling sick. “I won't let them.”

 

Iron man sprawled back. “You're so cute.” Steve was not sure he liked to be called cute, it seemed like half an insult in his teammate mouth. The other half he preferred not to think too deeply on... “But to answer your other question, since you seem to care more about me than about my former boss, thank you for that, by the way, they'll wait until the armor starts getting obsolete to target me, assuming I don't turn against them before then...”

 

Steve choose not to comment on the turning against Shield, the mere thought of how dangerous it would be for his friend made him feel compressed, so instead, he scanned the armor and dressed the other part. “How can this ever be considered obsolete?”

 

“You flatter me. But the version of the armor I used in the battle against the Chitauri is already outdated. I'm in a arms race against Shield, have been since they first could try to reverse engineer my suit. Tony designs upgrades for me all the time, even now, and Jarvis pushes them through to my armor, that's how they still can't lay their hands on me despite regularly scanning me and have footages of my fighting style.”

 

Steve took a second to absorb that. “He upgrades your suit?” He took a quick look around. Natasha didn't look like she was at all surprised, and all the others had expressions that seemed more thoughtful than disbelieving. 

 

The fight flaps on Iron Man's shoulders lifted, which seemed to be his way to emote a shrug. “Why do you think I'm so loyal to him? He still protects me even now.”

 

There was something that Steve could answer to that. Sure, Tony Stark probably had been less of a dick to Iron Man than he'd been to Steve that one day they had met, but still. “What about the nuke?”

 

Iron Man stayed silent, and then he swiped his hand sideway and the TV screen went black again. “Yeah, the nuke, right. Strange how I never noticed him stashing a nuke away. Hmm, maybe I don't know him as well as I thought...”

 

And then, for the second time of the day, Iron man got up and left the room on his own. In much the same way as before, he stopped on the doorstep and announced that Pepper Potts might need his protection more that usual for the foreseeable future, so he was suspending his membership with the Avengers to be her bodyguard.

 

Steve stared at the empty door for a while, then sighed and looked at his teammates. They all looked either thoughtful or smug, and he didn't know why, until a part of Iron Man's answer connected with his affirmation that there were bug. Then carefully, to avoid giving too much away, he asked to the thin air. “I wonder if Jarvis knew about that nuke, though.”

 

The lack of answer was very telling. Natasha smiled to him, head tilted, Bruce was frowning, and Clint was looking skyward.

 

That was enough for him to know their opinions on that matter.

 

Steve spared a second to be sick at the fact that he was probably working for an organization that not only found it normal to nuke New-York, but that also had lied and framed someone else to cover their asses (though Steve still didn't like Tony Stark, the fight they'd had on the Helicarrier was still the first thing he though about when his name was uttered. Iron Man seemed to like him, though).

 

Then he looked at the black TV screen again, and thought about how Iron Man had spoken about Coulson when Bruce asked him to talk about lies. Obviously, Iron Man hadn't wanted Shield to know they knew about the nuke. So, Steve did what Captain America did, he made up a battle plan, gaze still on the screen, and he followed Iron Man's lead.

 

“Jarvis probably knew, he'll always be loyal to his creator anyway. Stark probably hid the nuke from Iron Man because he knew he'd never endorse that.” And then, Steve sent a heavy look to his comrades, willing them to play along.

 

Natasha nodded, and added a bit on Tony getting a bit unhinged and paranoiac after Afghanistan. Bruce sadly said he didn't know Stark enough to make a psychological analysis on him, but he seemed like the kind of guy who kept all the corners covered, And Clint asked what they were doing now about the mission.

 

Steve nodded to them gratefully, and answered that Iron Man's opinion on Stark were probably biased, and that they wouldn't let Shield lay hand on their teammate even if disposing of him was their primary plan, but a criminal like Stark belonged in jail, so they'd accept and get a promise he wouldn't be killed as soon as they turned their backs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gah! The NaNo is finishing and I'm still missing 3000 words!
> 
> So, good news for you, there might be one or two new chapters by midnight (French time)!


	4. Axonometric Projection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Axonometric projection is a type of parallel projection used for creating a pictorial drawing of an object, where the object is rotated along one or more of its axes relative to the plane of projection, each of the faces shown foreshortened by a rapport with it's angle from the viewer thanks to trigonometry. There are three main types of axonometric projections: isometric, dimetric, and trimetric projections.
> 
> As with all types of parallel projection, objects drawn with axonometric projection do not appear larger or smaller as they extend closer to or away from the viewer. It's pretty useful for technical drawing, but result in a perceived distortion, since it can easily result in situations where depth and altitude are difficult to differentiate from each other. (never-ending stairs and such are axonometric views.)

As things fucking turned out, Aldrich Killian knew Maya Hansen, a woman Tony had slept with at the same conference as he'd met Yinsen, and he had helped her find a way around her problem at the time, so now she wanted Pepper to serve as a bait to lure Tony Stark out of his hiding.

 

Iron Man had known, because he'd gotten suspicious when the AIM people refused to let Pepper's bodyguard enter, and he'd hacked the Shield bug she was wearing at the time to eavesdrop in.

 

The ensuing battle had been messy and almost cost him his secret identity, but the faceplate was still intact and he managed to divert his team's attention from his burns after they finished wrapping things up (they also had been called, because the bug was Shield's so they had known and sent the team to back Iron Man up).

 

 

After he was done putting lotion on his burns, he had spent a long time not seeing anyone. He hadn't even sent the suit piloted by Jarvis up, just asked him to inform whoever asked after him that he was recovering from his wounds.

 

 

In a way that was a good thing. The utter wrecking of his suit gave him good cause to have Stark-Industries put orders for all manners of high-tech materials (he made sure not to order everything needed, and added lots of useless for that purpose but still believably usable in his armor things in the order bill too, he'd have use for them elsewhere, but it would throw Shield tech somewhat off), and lots of 'sick' time to design things both for his suit and for his villain bases and for plotting and spying.

 

 

When the singed Avengers had all healed, they went out on a chase for the wild goose, err..., Tony Stark. As he'd made sure, they didn't ask for Iron Man to join in, it afforded him plenty of time to be Tony Stark, and even excuses to fly around using his Iron Man suit.

 

 

Like always, he made sure not to be too easily traceable, but he still managed to find out what the DC overstaffed team was doing, and it sent chills coursing his whole body.

 

After a long pondering on his options, he manually wrote a letter, signed Tony Stark, covered the envelope in glitters so it would catch the eye, and deposited it on on Steve's bedside table as Iron Man.

 

 

Steve didn't come home for a week, that Tony used to hack Shield with Jarvis' help and gather as much informations as they could.

 

 

When the team came back to the tower after another failed attempt to catch Tony Stark (it was staring to cost him so set up and stock new stashes each time they raided one), It took roughly five minutes between the moment Steve got in his quarters to shower, and his calling for a strategy meeting with Iron Man in it.

 

Since he was suspecting this would happen, Tony had made sure to be in the tower, and he had Jarvis ask them all to go to the actual conference room after they were clean and put their pajamas on.

 

The requests actually got followed, which was a good thing, since the Avengers conference room was almost never used. Therefore, there hadn't been that many bugs in it to start with, and Jarvis had made sure they had all been found by the vacuum cleaner bots in the previous weeks, ensuring a spying free space. Similarly, no one had thought to put a bug on pajamas...

 

Jarvis did a scan before they started, and fired an EMP blast to destroy the last bug (Bruce's pen made sparks then, so they had an idea where it had been, Bruce was slightly upset at Shield defiling his work tool), then another one in case there was a back-up that only booted up after an EMP. It seemed to fry something in the TV, and Tony was vaguely upset about that too, but he solved the problem by bringing a bug free screen from his lair, and they started the meeting.

 

With Tony Stark 'on the phone' to tell them all the dirt he'd found (most of these were clips he'd made beforehand, but some he had to say when the questions were asked), they hammered their attack plan against the Winter Soldier conditioning cell, and they all took the Queenjet as soon as they were done making plans.

 

 

Unfortunately, the Hydra people had the time to thaw and equip the Winter Soldier before they finished storming the grounds, and Steve got pulled into an epic battle that the Hulk couldn't pitch in on because they wanted their opponent alive and in good shape when they were done with him. (Natasha was retrieving data higher in the building, since it wasn't connected to Internet and Tony could not hack it from home)

 

Steve seemed able to half crack the conditioning with his assurance that he was Bucky's friend and willingness to be used as a punching bag without retaliation. Tony ripped the Soldier away from Steve as soon as he could. Which was too late for him to retain consciousness.

 

When a gas pipes exploded and the bank went up in flame, Tony lost track of the Winter Soldier, but didn't loose time looking for him, instead opting to fly in the inferno and drag Captain America out.

 

He didn't find him where he'd been, and there was a frantic moment where he looked all around for tracks or hints or anything before Jarvis triangulated Steve's com link and led him to the sewers (again), where Steve was lying prone, battered and a little singed, but not in critical conditions... And still unconscious.

 

Natasha handed the drive over to Iron Man with an eyebrow wiggle, he hid it in his crotch piece and helped evacuate Steve to Shield's medical.

 

 

At the debrief, Iron Man said he was the one who had found the intel on the Hydra cell and that they had reasons to believe Hydra was spying on Shield's info input, so they had planned this strike independently. Fury looked very upset, whether at the Hydra or at the independent part was anyone's guess, but he gritted his teeth through a critic of their styles, what had been well done (they could all sense the utter reluctance in his voice when he congratulated them for avoiding a leak of their plan to the enemy), and what errors they had committed.

 

 

Strangely, the insistence that the team found Tony Stark as soon as possible got stronger after that...

 

 

Tony used the time it gave him to track the Winter Soldier. It wasn't like looking for a needle in a haystack, because Tony would find a needle in a haystack in a flash by using an electromagnet. It was like looking for one single particular tree in a forest!

 

 

Which made the game interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1600 words to go, there should be another chapter shortly!


	5. Exploded View

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An exploded view drawing is a diagram, picture, schematic or technical drawing of an object, that shows the components of an object slightly separated by distance, or suspended in surrounding space in the case of a three-dimensional exploded diagram.
> 
> The object is represented as if there had been an explosion emanating from the middle of the object, causing the object's parts to be separated an equal distance away from their original locations.

Life was like a stroboscope, there were moment of clarity, moments where he physically ached for a mission, moments when he hugged himself in a corner, shaking at the images that came from his own head. There were also moments when he saw good memories, memories that weren't shadowed with death and cold and pain.

 

 

He had gone to the Smithsonian under disguise to do what he did as a spy, to scope out his target, and he'd fallen frozen before a photograph that looked exactly like him. He hadn't loitered, but he'd still memorized everything, and then he had ran away.

 

 

James Buchanan Barnes. Bucky. Sargent Barnes. James. Asset. Jimmy. Winter Soldier. Jim. Yasha. Buck.

 

He was making all these names his again, some were pleasant, some were like chewing broken glass, some were confusing, (why was that woman crying 'Jimmy' at the top of her lungs supposed to be a positive memory? Screams were bad, weren't they?) some were downright sickening (he couldn't see little girls anymore, each time he did, a small and cute face dripping with blood at the corner of her mouth, and tears and snot appeared before his eyes, occulting everything else).

 

 

He was in a bar, trying to find some old memories thanks to the familiar surrounding sounds when someone sat next to him and asked to have a drink and to pour another of whatever 'hot stuff' was having. That was familiar. He had done that. But probably not to a man.

 

A hand slid on his thigh, then up and around. That was also a familiar touch memory. That had happened before, and he had flashes of an over made up woman leaning over him and asking if the Sargent wanted to blow some steam before going back to the front... There was a pleasant memory attached to that one, in a dark back alley, with the woman's head between his legs.

 

Following an older sense of skill set, he caught the hand in his flesh one and brought it up to his lips. The snicker it earned him was at once similar to the giggles his memory projected, and different enough to remind him this was happening in reality.

 

Unaware of the storm brewing in James' head, the man got up and slid neatly into his lap, sitting sideways on the soldier's thighs.

 

Buck had a moment of total connection where he stared down into the face of the guy occupying his personal space. He had hairs in a shade of blue silver that could only come from a bottle, sparkling brown eyes behind the glasses lenses, a cute nose and an attractive, clean shaved jawline.

 

Yasha's nose told him he was wearing both perfume and make-up. Once his nose had noticed that, his eyes tracked false shadows that discreetly redefined his face shape, making his his face thinner and his cheekbone sharper, and flattening his lips.

 

His observation was cut short by the man's face getting too close, and the Asset fastened his hands on his hips to avoid decking him by reflex.

 

There was a soft touch on his lips, there and gone in an instant, and the Winter Soldier blinked to refocus on the mischievous smile on the face in front of him. He ducked forward and caught the too pale lips with his again. There was a wet touch on his lips, and he opened up without even needing to think about it, discovering a whole wealth of sensation memory and acquired skills as he went.

 

The man on his lap had started moaning softly, a pleasant deep hum. When a click indicated their drinks had been served, and the guy straightened and disengaged to pay for the drinks and snatch his glass of alcohol.

 

Bucky caught his own glass with his gloved metal hand, and distractedly slipped his other hand under the man's shirt, reveling in the touch, in the feeling of skin against skin.

 

When his glass was empty, the man smiled and set it back down, then he turned to face James fully and slid his hands in his long hair. Of course, it was when Barnes remembered he hadn't washed them, like at all, since he ran, and he kind of feared the guy would bolt, but instead, he leaned in further and whispered in his ear. “When you're tired of running, call me, I have secure places where you can hide.”

 

It was like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on him. Whoever that was knew he was... Whatever he was, and he froze for a moment before removing his hand from the warm skin it had been resting on, keeping his eyes on the man's face to detect intent, but both his hands were still on the asset's head. Maybe he had back-up?

 

Slowly, the hand that was on his flesh side disentangled from his hair and slid down his arm, until the man had a hold of his hand. In a casual way that made Sergent Barnes both appreciative and even more wary, he guided said hand to his back pocket, where Jim could feel a simple cardboard card.

 

Understanding the intent, he slid the card out of the pocket. The man nodded, then he leaned in to whisper a short “I'm not you enemy” before sliding out of his lap with a squeeze on Yasha hand, a wink and a jaunty “call me!”

 

The man sauntered out, and James blinked after him, wondering to which impulse he should obey (kill him, flee, burn the card...) when and old lady cleared her throat and ordered him to run after him, idiot.

 

The ingrained habit to follow orders had him out the door before his common sense caught up to him, and then he ran the hills.

 

 

 

He almost dumped the card somewhere, but it had been offered as help, by someone who had been able to track him down but had approached him alone.

 

The confuse feeling of good thing wasn't enough to prevent him from examining the card through a powerful light, but there was no darker lump on the cardboard. Precaution still had him dumping all his clothes in a river and stealing other ones, and then he set out to find a place to wash up, because now that he was conscious of how filthy he was, he couldn't shake the feeling off.

 

And then he looked at what was actually written on the card. One side said 'Tony Stark' followed by the number of a burner phone, the other side said Iron Man, and had a number in New-York.

 

Both names were familiar. One was old memory of a man younger than the one he'd kissed in that bar, and the other was the mission he had run away from.

 

 

He found an Internet café and searched the two names. The photos and biography were there, telling him that Tony Stark was the son of Howard Stark (the younger man Bucky remembered), he had led his inheritance to new highs, and then been kidnapped, hired Iron Man as his Bodyguard and became a villain that tried to send a nuke on New-York. He had been on the run for almost one year, and even the Avengers had been unable to get a bead on him... So the secure place hadn't been a lie.

 

There were photos, and the Asset could recognize the jaw and eyes, and matched everything else with the shapes that had been hidden under make-up.

 

 

The pictures of Iron Man woke immediate, unblurred memories of his fight, of an unyielding metal hand seizing him and throwing him in a wall, away from Stevie, them putting himself between the Winter Soldier and his friend to protect Steve.

 

That was good, Buck liked this Iron Man for what he'd done, even if he hadn't been able to save Steve before Bucky got at him to drag him in the sewer system.

 

The biographies said he was a hero who saved people and teamed up with Captain America and the Avengers, and that he had saved New-York from the nuke his boss had launched onto Manhattan.

 

 

Yasha thoughtfully turned the card over a couple of times, considering what he had learned against the fact that Tony Stark had given him a card that displayed both his and Iron Man's phone numbers.

 

There was something there... Something Internet couldn't tell him.

 

 

A secret.

 

Or a trap.

 

 

“Call me” echoed the cheery voice in his head...

 

“Call ME.” And what if?

 

 

Sargent Barnes flipped the card thoughtfully, and clicked on the video of the Stark expo opening. The suit was barely moving from it's spot behind Tony Stark, it's movement stiff, nothing like the nimble guy he'd spared against in this bank vault.

 

It was just the right size, too, a few inches taller and duffer, enough to fit layers of metal over the skin...

 

He clicked the link where a shaky cell-phone video showed Tony Stark in the suit, wobbling dangerously, then getting thrown through a wall by another armor. It wasn't... It wasn't the movements of someone who had trouble navigating a high-tech appliance, it was the unsteadiness of a dead drunk guy he was witnessing.

 

Barnes looked down at his card. Couldn't be, right, someone else would have found out.

 

He watched the videos again, all of them, and even read the comments, and understood the thing. Yes, Tony stark was never near Iron Man when he was fighting, but he had been seen shadowed by the armor enough for people to discard the possibility of him being the pilot, he had announced Iron Man was his Bodyguard, and people hadn't really looked for clues that he was in fact Iron Man. Even looking for the clues, they were hard to find.

 

Bucky himself wasn't that sure of his conclusion, it seemed shaky, but... He turned the card again. Yeah, either a secret or a trap.

 

 

 

He kept the card.

 

 

 

In the end, it was the memory of soft lips against his and warm skin under his hand that had him dialing the number of the burner phone.

 

A secret.

 

Or a trap...

 

But a honey-trap, then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I won the NaNoWriMo, btw! \o/


	6. Semi-Schematic Diagram

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A semi-schematic diagram combines some of the abstraction of a purely schematic diagram with other elements displayed as realistically as possible, for various reasons. It is a compromise between a purely abstract diagram and an exclusively realistic representation.
> 
> Example: topological maps are a type of semi-schematic diagram, simplified so that only vital information remains, no unnecessary detail. These maps lack scale, and distance and direction are subject to change and variation, but the relationship between points is maintained. Tube maps usually have such diagrams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, long wait, but longer chapter too.
> 
> I'm moving out into my first apartment, it takes time, having the customary (if weakened) NANoCrash where I kind of dried up my writing capacities and need to replenish them, I still wrote this chapter roughly a week ago, but I wasn't satisfied with it's quality...
> 
> With time and constant writing, my style dulls and I stop being as concise, and there's nothing that saddens me more than a well written story degrading over time, so I refuse to let mine go that way, delay be damned. The rest did me good, and for all that I rewrote four fifth of the chapter in the night. I'm satisfied with it, so now you can have it!

Their op against the Winter Soldier's holding facility at least gave them believable reasons not to let their house stay bugged up all the way up to hell, and Tony knew that Jarvis enjoyed frying the surveillance camera and mics. He had hated to put up with foreign appliances impugning in his own functions, (for all that he denied being able of hate, ) and it was a good thing the reactor powering the tower could provide as much energy as needed, because had they been on the grid, the frequent use of electro magnetic pulse would have made all their neighbors grumpy about the power drain.

 

Jarvis couldn't fry everything, though. The newest generation of bugs Shield was slipping into their house each time an Avenger came home were resistant to EMP, and of course, Tony could find a way for Jarvis to put these out of commission too, he already had, actually, but they were waiting until they really needed privacy to let their enemy know that they weren't ahead in the arms race anymore.

 

Fury had used the excuse to clean house in the surveillance section of Shield, But Tony knew that this wasn't all.

 

It wasn't underlings who had decided to pin the blame on Tony, it was someone on the top of the ladder, and considering how Fury had let them do that but failed to inform them that Tony was actually Iron Man, it was even probable that whoever was rotten up top had even more power than Fury.

 

(Delightful perspective, isn't it?)

 

So yeah, Tony knew that Fury was on his corner, at least for now, and he knew very well that Fury wouldn't help him, couldn't. He had let Tony get framed hoping that Tony, thanks to his expertise and hide out in the person of Iron Man, would be able to help blow up whatever rotten thing sat on top of the Shield ladder.

 

Tony was doing his best. He wasn't promising Fury wouldn't be a collateral when he made the whole thing go up in flame.

 

Knowing Fury was covering his identity wasn't enough to forgive him for letting Tony go down.

 

Anyway, the Avengers were still mostly pretending to trust and obey Shield, and pretending they didn't have a single link with Tony Stark, but they had introduced “slumber parties” each month.

 

When there was a “slumber party”, they all donned their pajamas (even Iron Man, since Tony had found it hilarious to turn up with a sleeping hat screwed on his helmet at the second one, and had been prank gifted an XXL pastel blue pajama T-shirt and short set that he now wore over the armor at each meeting), and trooped into the conference room, that had been littered with beanbag seats and pillows and blankets, and they talked about the things that were shady about Shield, and sometimes had a phone call from Tony Stark somewhere along the discussion, to tell them what he'd discovered by his illegal means.

 

The conference room was the only place Jarvis used all his arsenal to keep absolutely bug-free.

 

(Though Tony knew Jarvis enjoyed himself by periodically throwing electrostatic interferences on the other bugs. He had even showed him an hilarious video montage where the Avengers were eating breakfast, discussing the new Hulk protocols, with the techs monitoring them inside Shield on the other side of the screen, and where Jarvis had fun scrambling the feed at points that made the conversation look like it was about sex. The reaction of Shield grunts was way too funny... As had been the looks Steve and Bruce had gotten the next time they had been called in the headquarters.)

 

Anyway, it was during another such meeting, where they were debating whether to tell Shield to shove it about chasing Tony Stark, that Tony was interrupted mid-word by Jarvis throwing a huge red exclamation mark on his hub and telling him the phone three was ringing. Phone three was a burner phone, he'd only given the number to one person.

 

Tony didn't even take the time to find an excuse, he just bolted out of the room and into the elevator, leaving it to Jarvis to tell his teammate a believable lie.

 

Tony had the time to remove the pajama T-shirt in the elevator, but he reached his lair before he could slip out of the shorts.

 

Not bothering further, Tony ripped the helmet off, tossed it on the bed, and dove for the phone.

 

“Tony Stark.” It had been so long since he'd used this greeting, and for a fleeting moment, he feared that this was a phone ad of one kind or another, but he could always pass it off as a prank... “What can I do for you?”

 

The voice that answered was kind of rough, and set all his worries (even these that weren't related to being discovered) at ease. “You said you had secure places?”

 

It was the first time Tony heard the Winter Soldier's voice, except for the “who the hell is Bucky” line that had broken Steve's heart in a million tiny pieces back in the 'disaffected' bank.

 

Which put the fact that he'd had his tongue in his mouth in perspective.

 

(Not that it hadn't been awesome, but, you were supposed to at least talk to the people you made out with, weren't you?)

 

Anyway, Tony had been kind of freaking out about the whole making out with the traumatized, brainwashed assassin. To be honest, he'd expected Barnes to burn the card and to hide even more thoroughly than before.

 

He had spent whole hours beating himself up with the memory of Barnes sitting back ramrod straight after Tony's whisper, wariness plain in his narrowed eyes, and seemingly poised to run.

 

So of course he had excuses... It had been a year since he had touched anyone in a really intimate way, and the response he had gotten had kind of sent his brain in the blurry zone... He hadn't expected Barnes to actually flirt back, kiss back... It had been the best way he'd found to get the Soldier's attention without alerting anyone else that something was afoot... He had seriously expected Barnes to look at him when Tony asked to pour him a refill, and slipping his hand on his thigh had seemed like an appropriate way to get brushed off but getting a window to give away his card... Barnes was pretty damn hot and he hadn't been able to help himself once he was on his lap, with the guy's curious blue eyes roaming along his face...

 

But fuck, who the hell took advantage of someone who had been regularly mind-raped for decades?

 

An utter asshole, that's who.

 

So, he had chalked the operation get Barnes to safety as a failure, and had focused back on the weeding out the Hydra mastermind from Shield operation. Getting a call... Getting that call for help was like the most unexpected good surprise ever, and he was so fucking relieved that he might have been a tiny bit over enthusiastic in answering. “Sure, whatever you need. Just tell me what state you're in, I'll direct you to the nearest stash.”

 

There was a pause, then. “Will I... See you?”

 

And hell, did that hesitation sting. “Well, it would be easier. My stashes aren't quite secure enough, it'd be best if I could take you to one of my actual bases... But if you don't want to see me, I can make things so you can get in without my help... It'll just take a few days...”

 

“No.” Barnes cut in. “No, I, I'd like to see you again.”

 

Tony came up short. What the hell. “Sure. Can you tell me an approximation of your position?”

 

So, from North Carolina where Tony had first tracked him, Barnes had moved all the way to Texas, and not just anywhere in Texas, near the frontier to New Mexico.

 

Tony sighed and informed Barnes that his closer stashes were either in Louisiana's salt swamps or in the west of Tennessee.

 

Barnes seemed to wave the concerns away, and asked the GPS point for the Louisiana stash.

 

Tony had a bad feeling about that, and asked how he planned to get there, and Barnes answered that he'd run, but only at night, people didn't pay attention at night.

 

Tony felt sick about that, and did some research, asking Barnes to wait for him under one particular bus shelter and Tony would come fetch him by noon on the next day.

 

Then, he went up to the slumber party, told everyone that something came up and he had to make himself scarce, and flew out the balcony.

 

 

 

 

Getting to the rendez-vous point involved various changes in direction, a complicated itinerary, Jarvis acting as the pilot of Tony's newly made submarine plane, a pick up truck, a bike, cross-dressing and twelve hours of driving. Thank god for overly trained assassins, though, Barnes popped up at the bus stop just as he pulled up to it, and hoped on the back of the bike without a single complaint.

 

 

 

 

The return route to Tony's primary base in Maine's Portland crossed ten states, involved three different vehicles, two of which were bought on the fly to just slightly enough shady second hand vehicle retail (since Tony had to ditch the pick-up somewhere in Texas. Tony was fairly sure it had been stolen before he was sold it, so when the police found the scorched carcass of it in a forest near a ranch, they'd think it was small time criminals that landed it there, not an internationally wanted fugitive).

 

There were exactly five make-up, wig up, dress-up sessions in their thirty hours run, (Barnes made for a smocking woman, when expertly dolled up like Tony had learned to in his long criminal year,) Tony had slept in the passenger seat while Barnes drove when he was too exhausted and they actually were in a vehicle that had passenger seats, they had stopped by three of Tony's stashes, Tony had needed to get strongly worded over the importance of sleep with his brand new accomplice.

 

(And he could appreciate the hypocrisy and craziness of this, he didn't need Jarvis-Lite's phone app to snort at him for that, okay!)

 

They spoke some, despite the awkward hanging in the air, when one or the other of them wasn't sleeping. Enough for Tony to ask where Barnes was rather they went (Tony's second main base, he was still baffled that the guy seemed to actively seek his presence) and to know that Barnes prefered names to address him were... Well, Barnes, James, Yasha, soldier or Bucky, though he seemed to have a special relationship with the Bucky and soldier ones, so Tony contented himself with using the Yasha one.

 

He could also call him James, but it was such a plain name, and no one called James actually used it with friends, ask Rhodey, or Barnes, for that matter, when he had still been a person, he had preferred a boyish nickname over his given one... No, James was classy for a British person (like Bond) but for an American... it was a generic, too used, somewhat cheesy, and overall always replaced by one nickname or another.

 

And according to Tony's somewhat shallow knowledge about Russian, Yasha was a nickname, a diminutive for Yakov, that was the equivalent of James in their tongue (in the same way as French people would say that Jean was pretty much the same as James in their tongue's given names)

 

There was something about calling Barnes Yasha that seemed to put him in some kind of loose shouldered, blank faced ease. Probably the fact that it was a human name that was an addition of the time he was serving as a bad guy (with the URSS, then). Tony could somewhat understand the need not to gloss over the bad things he'd done, but not digging into them either. No sweeping under rugs, no accusation, no dehumanization... Yasha was a good compromise.

 

In the time where they threaded secondary roads with both of them awake, Tony gave Yasha a sit-rep about Tony Stark and Iron Man, since he'd made the decision to stick out with him, he deserved to know more.

 

So Tony told him about the nuke being sent by a committee of mighty higher ups who'd quickly covered their asses thanks to the convenient Stark Industries logo on the bombshell, about the way they'd quickly frozen all his assets, baring the ones that were aboard (legally so) that he had managed to drain into five different shadier accounts before physically cashing them before the international response could freeze them.

 

He somewhat bitterly informed him of how quickly legal argument was made to fine him five way to hell and seize, drain and sell all the things under his name in the name of “compensation”, where he'd tracked the money actually going (which sure as hell was not into compensation at all), how he'd used that to dig deeper, the nasty secret he'd uncovered, his suspicions, how these had led him to finding Yasha's “storing” bank, his cooperation to the Avengers and the utter secrecy it was kept in...

 

Since he was already there, spitting poison at the people sitting in the top of seemingly every instance of the US, he also added how Pepped herself had to fight teeth and nails to avoid SI getting liquidated in the name of Tony's fictional treason, how a part of SI properties that had been at his disposition had even ended in these hyenas grubby mitts, and how Pepper had used the Avengers and publicity and Iron Man to pull the more possible fund that they were trying to freeze, pouring it into the Tower and it's new inhabitants and saying it as loudly as possible all over the news.

 

James asked how he managed to go be Iron Man inconspicuously, and Tony almost swerved off the road, (then made brake light “fuck you” signals to the asshole stuck to his back bumpers when they flashed their headlights at his swerving, if they didn't want to be in danger from Tony's driving, they could very well stop driving so fucking close,) Yasha smirked at his reaction, that was admittedly very damning, and Tony decided to stop holding that bit back.

 

If Yasha was actually undercover for Hydra (or Shield, or just fucking whomever), then Tony was fucked... Or not, maybe he had corrupted the Avengers enough to have them renegade along with him, who knew?

 

But Tony told him his tricks, his allies, his projects, his finds... Not anything that would put his more vulnerable friends in delicate positions if James betrayed him, but more than enough for James to know what he was getting into.

 

Tony got fed up with the asshole sticking to their ass, and pulled over for him to blast past and endanger his life at reckless speeds like he seemed to want to, then he decided it was as good a place as any to eat.

 

 

 

 

Yasha asked to drive afterward, and Tony relished in the luxury of not driving himself to elaborate more on his system of stashes, hideouts and bases, how some got regularly raided by Shield, the Avengers or the CIA, how he had to keep up, and was deliberately unsubtle on some to protect others, his discovery of cosplay online retail and their wigs and long lasting make-up that did wonder for hiding in the crowd and the way he made diversions regularly to launch searches on false trails that Jarvis was expert on keeping them wound into.

 

When he was done, James actually whipped out his rusty voice to tell him in strictly factual reports what he remembered, and what he could make out of this concerning Hydra and their allies.

 

Tony kept quiet and lightly deposited his hand on Yasha's thigh to try and alleviate his distress. Yasha pressed Tony's hand more firmly into his leg, and Tony left it there until they finally reached their destination an hour and a half later.

 

 

 

 

The secondary base was as spiffy as Tony could get while isolated, on the run, and trying to look deserted, which meant that there was a basement under a rickety garage shack (where they parked the car), with about the same level of comfort as in a two person's condo.

 

Lots of good quality preserves in the kitchen's cupboards, dry food that could be cooked, running water that was filtrated from a nearby stream, and warm shower that ran on energy from the arc reactor that also served as emergency low light in the ceiling.

 

(And had an overload system built in that made it the base's self destruct system).

 

There was a workshop there and a small dock for the sub-plane that led out by an underground immersed tunnel into the Pacific Ocean, as well as a bank of computer with Jarvis in it that he could use Internet from thanks to a hidden satellite Internet relay that camouflaged his access by virtually switching it into Burger King free wifi access all over the states, and into other fast food joints all over the world every minutes to scramble his traces neatly.

 

There was a bed and a couch, and Tony flopped into the later, making a hand move to signify James he was free to help himself to the other sleeping place, but Yasha sneaked close instead, looking kind of hopefully in Tony's direction.

 

“What?” Tony asked somewhat gruffly.

 

“In the bar...” Tony tensed, but Yasha rushed the other part. “It was... Nice, brought positive memories.”

 

And then Tony got it. If he himself was touch starved after a year of villainy, while still getting bi-monthly visits from Pepper and interacting friendlily with Jarvis, the bots and the Avengers as Iron Man, how bad must Barnes be after a cumulative five years as an objectified weapon of a man?

 

Badly.

 

And if his contrite face was anything to go by, Tony wasn't reacting fast enough. James added that “if you don't want to it's...”

 

Tony interrupted by raising his hands in a 'boost me up' way. “No it's okay, I miss touching too.” Jame heaved him upright. “Just... Not right now, too tired.”

 

James looked dejected and uttered a very quiet “understood” that broke Tony's heart. How was he that soft?

 

So he hastily added: “But if you want to sleep together... In the not euphemism way, you can carry me to the bed and bunk with me...”

 

He wasn't even done with his sentence that he was already gathered in his new partner's arms and halfway to the twin bed. Tony pulled the folded blanket from the shelf at the headboard, and told Buck where to find the make-up removing wipes.

 

They cleaned summarily and undressed partially, and then Barnes cozied up to Tony octopus style and went out like a light. His slack face and slow breathing lulled Tony into sleep too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I'm hesitating there... Do I gloss over the sex, or do I bump up the rating and let some porny depiction in the next chapter (from Yasha's POV)? Vote for your preferred management of sexy times in the comments!


	7. Selective Focus View

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Selective focus view, or Shallow focus is a photographic and cinematographic technique incorporating a small depth of field. In shallow focus one plane of the image is in sharp focus while everything else is blurry.
> 
> Shallow focus has become more popular in the 2000s and 2010s. It is also a means by which low budget filmmakers use to hide places that would require expensive props. It is often proclaimed by some to being a way to avoid the "video look."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, vote result: 10 for porn, 2 abstentions, so here comes a chapter of almost pure smut!
> 
> note how the very definition of the chapter title I chose is calling me lazy and asking me to work on my plot? Damn you wiki, for once it didn't take me half an hour to find an appropriate chapter name, you go and call me cheap!

When James woke up, there's no one else in the bed... And no cover... and he was crouched on the mattress...

 

For a couple of seconds, he scanned his surroundings, looking for the threat that had him react, and worrying for his... For Tony, and then there was a pained groan from the floor next to the bed.

 

Tony's head emerged, disheveled and with a swollen discolored spot on his cheekbone, and well out of reach. “Okay, so no waking you up when you have a nightmare. You back in the now, Yasha?”

 

Oh. Oh fuck, did he punch Tony out of the bed because of a nightmare?

 

“Hey, breathe, it's okay, no one can hurt you here. Jarvis, perimeter sweep.”

 

The mechanical voice said that his infrared scan only showed two human like signs in the five hundred yards around the base, then rattled the hour, date, day of the week, and weather forecast for today and tomorrow.

 

Bucky kept his eyes on the spot that was pinking over on Tony's face. “I hit you.”

 

 

There was an argument. About danger and avoidance, and it was decided they weren't sleeping next to each-other ever again. Or rather, James refused to sleep next to Tony again, And Tony had to begrudgingly accept that reality.

 

 

Of course, it was when Tony crossed his arms and grumbled that a handful of details hit James, like how they had both gone to sleep half naked. Tony had gone to sleep with only a shirt, and the tanned skin of his limbs seemed to call out to him. Or the realization that he'd just had a shouting match with someone, which was elating in it's newness. He was free, he had freedom of choice, and he'd just used it to but heads with someone, and it had gone alright, he wasn't hurt, and Tony wasn't even really angry about it...

 

And Tony was beautiful, even with the red bruise on his face, he was, he had the most gorgeous face a guy could hope to have, and a lean figure, healthy looking, and just muscled enough for it to show, and Yasha stepped forth, wanting to touch again.

 

Tony's head locked on him, pausing at the Soldier's metal arm for a few seconds, then roaming across James bare torso, then up to his face, and down again, and there was the old skill-set coming up again, making Barnes clench and unclench all the muscles in his upper body, showing them off.

 

Tony looked a little glazed over, and Yasha added the old skill to his new body, shifting the plates of his metal arm, first up, in precision setting, then down in it's most powerful setting, and finally the sideways shift that kind of locked his arm in it's current position (very useful in specific situations) before returning it to the normal, standard human mobility and range calibration.

 

Tony was now mostly in the asset's space again, eyes glued to Jame's left biceps, and hands half out to touch the metallic appendage. It seemed shiny metal things were Tony's weakness, Yasha filled it away for later use, and hooked said shinny metal arm around Tony's waist, pulling him flush against Jim's chest.

 

Using his flesh hand to turn Tony's head up, he examined the bruise from closer up, tentatively touched it with human fingers, then slid his hand to the back of Tony's head and kissed him like he'd wanted from the moment Tony had pulled his helmet off in this shitty car shop in Oklahoma.

 

Tony got on with the program in a flash, hands going up to Jame's neck, one sliding around under the hair to the nape, and the other kind of slipping sideways to fondle at the metal on Yasha's shoulder, though he only knew it because of the tiny moves it prompted in the plates there.

 

When Tony pulled his face free, he was panting, and made a comment on cheating by luring Tony over with technology, but the accusation was warm and playful, and the soldier answered that he was a trained operative and not above playing dirty.

 

They kissed again, and Tony showed he knew how to make a kiss even dirtier and sloppier than Bucky ever did, and damn, it was like they were having sex with their mouths now.

 

And Tony had his crotch pressed to Yasha's leg, definitely up for actual sex.

 

 

Looking at his knowledge on the having sex, Bucky drew up a whole bank of info on women's skins and all the positions he'd tried, and even his favorites, but drew a blank on male partners.

 

Sergent Barnes had a couple of clues, though, hearing noise behind the barracks as he went past, and glancing at the cause, just to deliberately look the other way before he could identify either the guy propped against the wall or the one kneeling before him. There were several such occurrence in Barnes memory, behind a dumpster in Brooklyn, in the back-alley next to their bar in England, in a wood in France, and the memory of purposely ignoring it, sometimes even getting out of his way so no one else would bust the guys.

 

He remembered understanding them and being grateful that his advantageous figure and Sergent grade gave him enough appeal to get women to do that for him instead of fellow soldiers. But he'd never had a doubt about what they were doing, and that it probably was just as good with a man, if more risky.

 

 

Tony pulled off with a wet sound, asked why his head wasn't in it, Yasha backed him against the nearest surface and moved his flesh hand to close it on Tony's bare erection. Tony clutched at his shoulders and spread his legs, giving James more space to go about the jerking off.

 

Tony tried reaching for the fly of Jame's jeans, but the asset caught his wrist, and pinned it to the... kitchen cabinet behind Tony. The soldier had given himself a, well a mission to get Tony off, distraction wasn't welcome.

 

And because he needed them, memories unlocked, shards of knowledge from way before, from Bucky. Telling him that he'd always been grateful when a Dame put her hands on his prick, but that when he stepped out with one that was willing to put her mouth there it had always been so much better.

 

Yasha unglued himself from Tony's front and slid down to the floor, head level with Tony's groin.

 

Tony blinked at him twice, swallowed and grunted, visibly bracing himself against the cabinet, hand still in James grip flexing, the other moving out then back, hovering by James face.

 

Jim made the decision for him and rubbed his cheek on said hand, Tony shook himself back him and stroked his cheek, finger digging into Yasha's long hair again.

 

Yasha sighed and bent his head forward, into the fold of Tony's thigh and hip, relaxing into the affectionate touch, bringing Tony's other hand to his metal shoulder where Tony seemed to like putting it before liberating it.

 

He stayed that way for a pretty long time, Tony didn't move to urge him on, only petting Yasha's hair and shoulder, in a very gentle, feather light way that told the soldier without a single doubt that this man was not a danger to him.

 

 

There had been an handler who had liked to reward good behavior with touch before, but the touch had always been rough, quick and forceful, for all that he'd appreciated... Craved them, he knew, now with Tony's hands on him while he was kneeling, he could now tell from the difference, that that handler had treated him like one might do with a dog while Tony handled him like you did a lover.

 

That handler had been withdrawn. Executed. The Winter Soldier had been asked to do it. He'd done it. Then he'd been shoved in a chair, someone saying that positive enforcement encouraged unhealthy delusions of self in the asset and that it needed to be thoroughly reprogrammed now.

 

 

A shiver ran down Yasha's spine, and Tony started to slide down the cabinet, calling him, asking if he was alright.

 

James snapped back in the here and now, and his hands shot out, catching Tony around the hips and firmly backing him upright against the cupboard. That had been then, this was now, and he wanted to... Needed to do something for Tony. Not because Tony was his handler, not to please him, to make him treat James better, but because it was something he had wanted to do, a mission he had given himself on his own, it was his choice, no handler, no order, just him, Tony, and the lust between them.

 

Yasha's right hand slid back to Tony's dick, finding it hard and warm inside his palm, and he pulled his head back, looking up at concerned brown eyes. Bucky helped make his face pull into a mischievous smile, and Tony relaxed, hand winding deeper in the soldier's hair, the other, the one that had been at his shoulder, crept up James' neck, across his jaw, thumb brushing Jim's lower lip.

 

James shuddered, mouth opening on it's own to lick at Tony's thumb, mind drawing a total blank. There was strictly nothing in this situation that prompted any memory from any of his fragment. This was something new, something powerful and good and HIS. His only. Not something of his past 'Bucky' self that was there but hard to reconnect with himself, not Hydra's, not Red Room's, not even Sergent Barnes. This moment belonged to whoever he could now choose to become.

 

Eyes still holding Tony's gaze, he moved forward again, mouth coming into contact with the tip of Tony's erection. Head popping past his lips without a strain. Tony's face went slack and he uttered a blasphemy.

 

And that was rewarding on it's own, it was Yasha who had that effect on Tony. He could make Tony wear that face as much as he wanted, and he could also stop whenever he wanted, this was his choice, and it was great.

 

On his tongue, Tony was hot, leaking a little salty, and he tasted musky, just a little sour, like skin and sweat from the night. It wasn't bad, not really remarkable either, though. What made it worth it was the sight and sounds of Tony enjoying it.

 

His teeth caught in a fold of skin when he pulled back, and Tony winced while Bucky's memories sent a depiction of how not cool that mishap was from the other side. Bucky opened wider with a clack at the joint of his jaw, pulling off.

 

He carefully rounded his lips over his teeth a couple of times and tried again. Tony groaned and started praising James. It seemed like an automatic response to the stimulus, no name in, just a stream of “yes” “so good” “amazing” and pet names. It was nice though, rewarding.

 

Bucky mobilized his memories (learning that he'd used to react to getting head quite the same way as Tony while he was at it) of that experience from the other side to get ideas of what he could try, what had worked on him once upon a time.

 

After a couple of minutes, it seemed his teeth kept out of the way on their own, and he knew what way Tony liked best. Tony was pretty vocal about his pleasure, also helpful, telling outright what he wanted done differently.

 

The renewed confidence, the pointers both from his own memory and from Tony's mouth, and the hands gripping his hair tighter each time he did something right helped him relax into it, improvising and disobeying just for the pleasure of it, trying other things, metal hand leaving it's post at Tony's hip to go and grope his ass, the other one pumping and squeezing the length of penis that didn't fit in his mouth as he bobbed his head, alternating between sucking as he pulled out, and twirling his tongue around the head of Tony's cock.

 

Sometime while he was working on Tony, his gaze had drifted down from his face to his abs, which were almost as expressive, bunching and twisting just in front of his eyes. James wanted to lick these too.

 

It was in the middle of these abdominal thoughts that Tony pulled at Yasha's hair, trying to pry him off, in what Bucky recognized as a courteous blow-job code to let your partner know you were about to come. The litany coming out of Tony's mouth was enforcing that point, and James bobbed his head forth instead. Not taking orders. This was his show to run.

 

His eyes came back up to Tony's face, stubborn, insubordinate expression plastered on, and the tone of Tony's chatter changed about the lines of how beautiful he was, and unbelievable, and possibly calling Yasha a god. He was inordinately pleased he got Tony to say that "Yasha" in his little discourse. That meant he wasn't interchangeable to Tony, and he squeezed his hand more firmly on Tony's underside to show his state of mind, along with a smiling eye narrowing that Bucky pulled up from his skill-set.

 

Tony groaned, his hands shifted, and though James should have seen it coming, he knew why only when Tony thrust in his mouth, penis sliding along the roof of Yasha's mouth until it butted on the back of his throat. It was uncomfortable and brought tears to his eyes, but didn't last more than a second before Tony stopped forcing in, going slack as thick bittersweet liquid spilled on Bucky's tongue.

 

Bucky retreated slightly, but kept his hand in movement. He tried swallowing, mostly, but he didn't have the hang of it, and a good portion of the semen spilled out of his mouth, dribbling down his chin.

 

An image floated up, something he'd found awfully hot while it was happening, and he just opened wide, not really swallowing anymore, letting the last splutters of come coat his tongue and the roof of his mouth, while looking straight at Tony's eyes, knowing the picture of his come in James mouth was very clear to him. Tony groaned, swore, and expelled two more weak waves.

 

James removed his hand and mouth from Tony's dick after that, feeling distinctly pleased and smug.

 

He sat back on his heels, smearing the come inside his mouth around, puzzling over the taste of texture, but then Tony knelled too, right in Bucky lap, and used the hands still in his hair to pull James head backward and lick in his mouth. It wasn't exactly a kiss, too sloppy, but so hot.

 

The constricting nature of his pants appeared to James all of a sudden when he hadn't even noticed it so far and he pressed his hands to his groin, groaning at how Tony was now licking his chin clean of his own come.

 

Tony licked again, then brought his mouth back to Jim's.

 

And then hands came over his, slipping around Yasha's wrists to pop the button and fly of his trousers open. James moaned and bent back, hands fumbling with his underwear for a moment before Tony chuckled against his mouth and helped him maneuverer his own hands to his dick, stroking along with him.

 

Three strokes, and Yasha went off, spilling on their joined hands with a whine and a sigh.

 

“Wow, that was so very hot” Tony commented with another sloppy open-mouthed kiss, before bringing his left hand, holding Yasha's right one, up and licking the mess there.

 

Yasha's brain sort of short circuited, and he grunted. Tony, of course noticed that and licked all four of their hands mostly clean while Yasha blanked out, starring at the display while the fire in his belly tried very hard to reignite itself, failing only because of the necessary refraction period.

 

 

The picture of Tony's tongue tracing the palm of his metal hand for James semen, working around the joints with an expression of utter delight would probably follow him his whole life.

 

 

When Tony was finished frying his brain with sexiness, James somewhat clumsily tucked himself back into his underwear, leaving the pants's zipper open, and rummaged around the kitchen for something cold to press to Tony's swollen cheekbone.

 

He probably should have done that before sex...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, in case some of you think I'm going to give you whiplash by switching James/Bucky/Yasha/Jim/the soldier's name every time, it is deliberate, the narration is out of Barnes head, and he still had trouble deciding who he is, that's all.
> 
> Also, sorry for you, but there won't be porn in the next chapter. I need to work on that damn plot, and that calls for a point of view with the active Avengers. Don't know which one yet, though.


	8. Line Drawing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Line art or line drawing is any image that consists of distinct straight or curved lines placed against a background, without gradations in darkness or color. It is usually monochromatic, though that is not a solid rule.
> 
> Line art emphasizes form and outline, over color, shading, and texture. However, areas of solid pigment and dots can also be used in addition to lines.
> 
> By it's very function, line drawing may never look exactly the same as reality, even if the simplification can make things easier to see than a photograph.

He knew it was a little childish, but Steve wasn't just missing Iron Man anymore. He had missed him almost every single day on the field for three months, since Shield had ordered to chase Tony Stark.

 

Now, Steve was resenting his absence. They had been close friends, or so he thought, they had joked, flirted, they were the very best combination when fighting together, and okay, Steve always felt a little warm whenever Iron Man called him cute, or made a comment on his form or ass...

 

And now, Iron Man wasn't all that anymore. Or at least not with Steve. And that was awful.

 

So yes, Steve knew it was childish to glare at the window his teammate had jumped out of three days ago, and hadn't come back from. But he did it anyway. If his friend rain checking their bi-weekly team meeting wasn't a sign, he didn't know what was.

 

Steve had to have messed up somewhere. And he had a feeling he knew where. This was about Tony Stark. Most of Steve's life was, now. Steve resented that.

 

Steve wasn't openly hostile to Stark. He restrained on that front as much as he could, mostly for Iron Man's sake. But Iron Man was perceptive, so he probably noticed the veiled hostility anyway. 

 

Thinking about it objectively, Steve knew Stark wasn't the bad guy, he knew he had been framed, sure, but the fact that everyone believed he was a murderer was pretty telling. Well, and the notion that he, as the good guy, was plotting the downfall of his own organization with the help of a supervillain... It was bad for his nerves, and he kind of took it out on said supervillain.

 

There was also the fact that Steve didn't really know what Stark's plans were. Sure, they knew he was up against Shield, trying to find out who was rotten, and to get rid of them, but they didn't know his actual plans, Stark just gave them stolen intel, eventually helped strategize, but he kept all his secrets, and that rubbed Steve the wrong way.

 

Except now that he was stopping to think about it, he was understanding how unfair that was of him. Stark had been framed, forced to live in hiding, forced to go up against a whole organization mostly alone, and now, Steve resented him for being a victim. Way to bear down on the weak, Rogers.

 

“Jarvis?”

 

“Yes, Captain?”

 

“Is Iron Man upset that we're still chasing Tony Stark? Are you?”

 

There was a pause. “We understand why you do it, Captain.”

 

“Which isn't a no.”

 

Another pause. “It is not you or your team that we resent for this situation.”

 

Steve sighed. “You mean that you and Iron Man resent that the Avengers are chasing for Stark, but you don't resent us for it?” Steve shook his head. “No, it's okay, I think we need to have a team strategy meeting, can you call everyone in the common room?”

 

 

 

Everyone came in, one after the other. They all looked around eagerly, then seemed to slightly deflate when their armored teammate was nowhere to be seen.

 

Steve looked it happen with growing determination. He wasn't the only one missing Iron Man. They had to fix the rift that was growing between them, and Steve knew how to do that. “I want to debate the resignation of our mission to search for Tony Stark, as it is becoming obvious that this kind of mission isn't our forte. Also, because it is deteriorating our relationship with our teammate, Iron Man.”

 

The meeting being in a common space, Steve knew they were being listened in, as everyone did, and they proceeded to discuss their repeated failures and less frequent encounters with their armored teammate in a way that didn't show how much they actually knew.

 

Which meant that their reasons for stopping the chase were that without Jarvis' willing help to track people, even Natasha didn't have the skills needed to find an outstanding escape-artist like Stark, and that anyway, there was no real reason for a team as powerful as them to go after a lone civilian. Any other Shield team should be able to do as well as them against Stark. Besides, it was better to be ready in case of an emergency. That and their straining relationship with Iron Man, who had asked that they didn't go up against Tony Stark.

 

The meeting did go well, in the sense that no one slipped, and it provided a good basis for the actual resignation. Shield was spying on them, and they would get suspicious if they didn't have wind of their decision before they announced it.

 

The fact that Steve had to play around that made him queasy, and that, for sure wasn't Stark's fault.

 

 

 

“Are you sure you want to go and disobey my orders, Roger?”

 

Steve looked at Fury straight in the eye. “Yes.”

 

“And why isn't Iron Man there with you? I was sure he would love to gloat right now.”

 

Steve saw red, Iron Man was their teammate, Fury didn't get to insult him. “I believe he was clear enough about his trust toward Shield, or lack thereof, the last time he came along. Maybe if you didn't plan to Kill him he would be more willing to step into your headquarters.”

 

“I won't have this insubordination, Rogers!”

 

“I am sorry, I do not believe it is insubordination, mostly smart attribution of resources. Why don't you send Coulson's team to look for Stark instead?” Fury stood straighter, and though Steve was standing mostly back to his team, he saw them take on confrontational positions. “You see, when I get lied to, I have a little trouble trusting everything else I am told. And I always believed line of commend worked with two way thrust. Why do you expect me to obey, to put my team in danger's way on your orders, while you're lying to me?”

 

“It is not lying, it is compartmentalization. We're an intelligence organization, we make sure no one knows everything so they can't spill everything.”

 

“No one but you?”

 

“That isn't the question...”

 

“No, the question is when were you planning to let us know that the man we fought for isn't dead.” Steve looked at him with his best unimpressed face for a while, then shook his head. “Right, never. Tell me again why we should follow your orders blindly?”

 

“Coulson's survival has been classified with good reason, the circumstances of the aftermath of his brush with death are best kept secret, so it is for the best that the fewer people possible know of it.”

 

“Oh yes?” Steve asked, still angry. “I tend to have the same kind of consideration, mind you... On, say, our privacy? I do think it would be for the best that the conversations inside the tower be known by the less possible people, which does not include Shield techs and generally anyone who isn't invited in said conversations.”

 

Fury crossed his arms. “I do what is necessary to ensure the security of the world, Captain. I did read the SSR files, I know very well you personally did similar things... And worse ones.”

 

Steve stiffened at the accusation. “We were at war, we compromised. We did it so people could be free. That is not freedom, this is fascism. And last I knew, Shield wasn't at war against the Avengers.”

 

In a display that might be unconscious for some of them (but definitely not for Nat), the team arrayed themselves behind Steve, non-verbally supporting him in his decision. Fury sighed, asking if Steve wasn't exaggerating, but he had already admitted defeat.

 

“Okay, I will relay your decision to stop chasing Stark to the council, but you are wrong, Captain, I do share.” With a frown, Fury dug in a drawer of his desk, withdrawing his hand with a kind of outdated-looking cell phone in his palm. “This has a direct secure line to Coulson's team built in. I can't guarantee that he will answer, though, or that he will be happy to hear of you.”

 

Steve accepted the phone for the peace gesture it was, nodded to Fury, and turned away. Without a sound, Clint, Natasha and Bruce filled out behind him. Steve waited until they were alone in the Avenger helicopter to hand the phone over to Clint. Out of them all, Clint had been hit the hardest by Coulson's death. Contacting the Agent or not was his decision to make.

 

“Let's go back home.”

 

 

 

When the helicopter touched down, the door to the common room stayed closed. It was mid-autumn, so it wasn't all that surprising. What was more surprising was for the door to stay closed when everyone was out of the transport and waiting to be let in.

 

“Hum.” Clint hummed. “Jarvis?”

 

“It is a pleasure to see you again, Agent Barton, Agent Romanov, Doctor Banner, Captain Rogers. I took the liberty to destroy the listening devices inside the tower when it became obvious you would be going in Shield controlled territory less often and bring back less bugs. It would make my keeping the tower free of listening devices easier if you accepted to divest yourselves of any electronic device you wish to keep intact and went to the Iron Man landing platform behind you so I can fry the devices that were sprayed on you before they get disseminated in the common areas.”

 

They looked at each other. Clint was half smiling, Natasha looked blank, Bruce shrugged and asked Jarvis if there was any specific place he wanted the electronic devices to be put, and promptly set his phone down in the tray Jarvis popped out of the wall before walking to the center or the hatch.

 

The circle Bruce was standing on rotated slowly, lowering into the ground. A few panels started glowing and a buzzing noise rang. The platform moved up and down until all the parts of Bruce's body got exposed to whatever Jarvis used to fry the bugs, then Jarvis brought him back to ground level, instructing him not to get close to his team-mates again before they were bug free too.

 

Steve went next, simply because he had less electronics to remove that either of his spy friends, though Jarvis asked that he put his shield with the electronics because it might disrupt the bug-frying-waves, then Clint stepped in the rig, smiling and asking questions, followed by a silent Natasha.

 

When they were done, Jarvis opened the door, while saying that he would have finished checking the tech over for bugs in half an hour.

 

Steve thanked Jarvis, the “it was my pleasure” that the AI answered sounded a lot more heartfelt than mere politeness warranted, but Steve didn't dig.

 

 

 

A few hours later Jarvis interrupted Steve in his 'going to bed' routine by announcing that his Sir had left a gift for Steve with Jarvis to show him when he was alone.

 

“Am I keeping secrets from my team, now?” Steve really tried not to sound too disapproving, but it still showed.

 

“It was not required for you to keep Sir's gift secret, only that you were the only one to see it.” Jarvis' voice cut a little, but he didn't sound too offended, so Steve didn't dig more.

 

“Okay, what is this gift?”

 

Steve's TV lit up, the most breath-taking picture Steve had ever seen sitting on the screen.

 

There was a shot of Bucky, sitting at a table, inside, a steaming plate of mac and cheese before him, Bucky had his fork poised to stab pasta with, head slightly tilted, half a smile on his lips as he looked at the photo taker.

 

Steve's relief was staggering, Bucky was alright, Bucky was eating, Bucky was smiling, Bucky was healthy, Bucky had clean, warm clothes and a roof over his head and he was shaved, hair still long but clean and brushed and tied together, he didn't look in any kind of pain.

 

“When was this picture taken?” Steve asked, mind automatically trying to catch all the clues of where it was, but not finding anything in the cabinets or fridge on the background.

 

“This isn't an information I can give you. Do you wish me to ask for the authorization to tell you, Captain Rogers?”

 

Steve growled. “What is Stark's game? Giving me this but refusing to add any information?”

 

Jarvis' voice was cold as steel when he answered. “I would appreciate if you watched your words, Captain, Sir was in no obligation to even give you this, he doesn't owe you anything, maybe you could be grateful for his generosity?”

 

The wrath of the AI shook Steve, reminding him he was supposed to be doing an effort. “Sorry, that was way out of line. I am grateful to know Bucky is reasonably well, it's just...”

 

“I cannot give you anymore detail, Captain.” The voice was inflexible, but the anger seemed to have drained out of it. “Mister Barnes' privacy and right to make choices rates higher than your curiosity, I can however make a list of what you would like to know and ask for his consent on sharing said information.”

 

“His consent? You mean that he knew I was getting that picture?”

 

“Yes, he did. He accepted once Sir assured him that I was able to erase all the markers that could compromise his position, and that the risks of this picture getting in the wrong hands were minimal.”

 

Steve's breath caught, eyes going back to the picture. Stark had somehow found Bucky, and he had gotten out of his way to ensure Steve wouldn't need to worry about his best friend. “Did Stark even know that I was refusing to chase him anymore when he decided to make this gift?”

 

There was a pause, probably Jarvis considering if answering that question was breaching Bucky's privacy. “No, he didn't. I said it wasn't you we resented for this situation, didn't I?”

 

Steve sighed, adjusting his world view by another increment. “Please thank him for me. And give Bucky my phone number so he can call me if he needs anything... If you could convey my apologies to Iron Man and tell him we miss him too, it would be great.”

 

Jarvis accepted to play messenger, saying once again that none of the Stark team actually resented him, and Steve went to bed.


	9. Technical Drawing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Technical drawing, also known as draft, is essential for communicating ideas in industry and engineering. To make the drawings easier to understand, people use familiar symbols, perspectives, units of measurement, notation systems, visual styles, and page layout. Together, such conventions constitute a visual language, and help to ensure that the drawing is unambiguous and relatively easy to understand. These drafting conventions are condensed into internationally accepted standards and specifications that transcend the barrier of language making technical drawings a universal means of communicating complex mechanical concepts.
> 
> This need for precise communication in the preparation of a functional document distinguishes technical drawing from the expressive drawing of the visual arts. Artistic drawings are subjectively interpreted; their meanings are multiply determined. Technical drawings are understood to have one intended meaning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gah, long, long gap there... Sorry, I took a breather and went to see my grandparents, and then I involved myself into a sewing project (just for references, how many of you would buy a Winter soldier bear if they saw it on Etsy? Just to know if that one is a viable future career path... Though I'm in Europe, it restricts the client base...)
> 
> Also, for the reference, I wasn't actually planning on putting porn in this chapter when I started writing it, but then Tony happened... So don't be surprised when it comes up (pun intended).

 

 

 

In the week that Tony announced he could get away with before he had to go back to being Iron Man to his team-mates, Yasha learned a lot of things. Things on Tony, things on making weapons from apparently innocuous household chemicals, things on himself, things on blowjobs too, of course.

 

 

 

Tony... Tony was contradiction made human. He was everything, and the reverse too, it would give someone whiplash, but damn if Barnes didn't like it. In this enclosed bunker, studying Tony seemed to be the only pastime available, but James almost didn't notice it, because it was a very time consuming pastime.

 

 

 

So yes, Tony was careful except when he was brash, and then, he even seemed to master being carefully brash. He was silent, secretive, and a chatterbox besides. He cared a lot, about a lot of things at once yet acted and looked offhand about them. He held onto his grudges like a bulldog but forgave easily. He was a perfectionist, and he went half cocked. He was a futurist, ut he looked nostalgic sometimes. He paid attention, or he was totally distracted and mindless, but he could distractedly pay attention too.

 

 

 

James had discovered that last one when Tony was totally absorbed in his engineering, knowing that an earthquake couldn't have taken Tony out of the zone, he had started pouring out his heart, needing to say things, if only so he couldn't continue ignoring them. He had talked, for a couple of hours, of everything, of Steve who was too good for his own good, of Hydra and their fucked up ways, of himself, of the confusion in what, who he was and for what purpose he was still breathing, of his crushing guilt and self hatred, of a few of the most horrifying things he had accomplished, and Tony hadn't piped up a word all along, though he had kind of acknowledged James' presence with a head tilt somewhere at the beginning.

 

 

 

Tony hadn't said a thing for the hour after the outpour either, while Yasha was wondering why he'd even gone and said these things. Then, Tony had put the finishing touches to his project (a jammer that would scramble the security cameras in a mile radius, to be used in cases where he'd been spotted and needed to get away using confusion), stretched his back, joined The Soldier where he was putting the finishing touches to his mac and cheese.

 

 

(Cooking was one of these things Barnes was discovering about himself. He wasn't particularly talented at it, but he liked doing it, especially when he was brewing through dark thoughts, it was a positive activity, in no way lethal, it wielded good, healthy results for him and for Tony. It was human and normal, and the asset's proficiency with a knife and perfect time awareness were used too, and Bucky was vindictively happy to be using the skills Hydra forced him to get for something they would thoroughly disprove of, like feeling human and feeding one of their fiercest opponent...

There was something else, something furry and growling in the back of Yasha's brain that rumbled in happiness each time Tony accepted to eat something he'd done, that revealed in the warmness of looking at Tony being happy and trusting and delighted, that basked in every single compliment -and compliments there were, Tony seemed impressed even by something as small as pasta cooked following the appropriate time on the label- James couldn't tell if this animal thing was a remnant of being five years old, but it was eerily reminiscent of a similar feeling directed at Steve...)

 

 

Tony had slithered behind Yasha, noticed but not hindered, looking at the food with glee and another compliment on smell that James felt settle warmly in his stomach, cheering him a little, and then, Tony had slipped his arms around Barnes middle and told him that the past had passed already, but the future was the land of possibles, only one of them could be changed, so instead of dwelling and wishing the past had been different, Yasha's present was better used trying to make things right. If he felt guilty, then it was time to try and right his errors, if he was angry, he should plan revenge, and if he was worried, he needed to make contingency plans.

 

 

 

The words rang true, they also rang like personal wisdom, but James was more interested into absorbing them, it was a seed Tony had given him, now Barnes needed to grow it. Contingency, revenge, amends, he felt the words settle in in the part of the asset's mind that was dedicated to missions. He didn't have time to do much more with that, since Tony apparently decided that more cheering was in order, and pushed Yasha down on a kitchen chair. Deep reflexion on the sense of life couldn't hold a candle to the sight of Tony Stark kneeling between his legs, arms crossed across James thighs and mischievous, questioning smirk on his lips.

 

 

 

James had undone his fly by way of authorization, and the dark thoughts vanished in favor of observing Tony giving him head. It was always loaded to see this man doing this. He knew exactly what Yasha was, what he had done, and he still went to his knees for him. It was a constant reminder of how he wasn't with Hydra anymore, Hydra had never cared about him the way Tony did.

 

 

 

Also, Tony had a wicked mouth, soft hair and prickly too-short facial hair, the combination was unique, but the sensations familiar. The mix meant that Barnes could get flashbacks, of the happier sort, from the familiarity but still didn't get lost in memories. Tony was male, none of Bucky's lovers had been, and every few second, Tony's stubbed chin grazed Yasha's inner thigh, reminding him that the past was before, but this was happening right now, and he was an active participant, who could stroke hair, whisper or shout, who could sneak a foot against Tony's groin and rub it too.

 

 

 

That move had made Tony groan, vibrations traveling up Yasha's dick, and then he had gone somehow sloppier, hands slipping from their places on Bucky to touch himself. The view was fantastic, even more so when Bucky had put his metal hand at the base of his shaft, replacing Tony's missing one, and it dawned on him that with one hand directing his dick and the other at the back of Tony's head, he was now effectively feeding Tony his dick.

 

 

 

The thought alone was enough to cause the death of a good many brain cells, but he wouldn't have come on the spot if Tony hadn't started purring around him almost simultaneously to his realization. Yasha had to tense every single one of his muscles to avoid just slamming Tony's head forward as orgasm rolled over him.

 

 

 

Tony's mouth stayed attached where it had been all through James' realize, up until Barne's dick slipped limply out of his mouth. Tony was making an incredible picture, down there, eyes hooded, red lips, strings of come and saliva still connecting to the head of Yasha's cock, working his purpling dick over in his hands while simultaneously bearing down on James' foot, but it what the rumbling breaths that reminded Bucky of a cat. So Bucky, slipped his left hand under Tony's chin, scratching lightly, as his other hand drifted behind Tony's ear, and mindless endearments and praises slipped out of him.

 

 

 

Tony didn't take offense, digging his chin forward into the touch and turning his ear more forcefully into the petting. Tony shuddered as Bucky finished a sentence that had a ridiculous number of probably outdated endearments and praises such as good boy, beautiful, talented, as well as what sounded suspiciously like I love you... unless it was I love your mouth, things were pretty hazy at this point, especially since Tony dug his nose in Barne's pubic hair with a drawn-out mewl and came all over his hands and Yasha's foot at this point.

 

 

 

Bucky surprisingly found enough brainpower to cringe at ruined pant leg at this point. The Soldier didn't give a damn about pants, too preoccupied with memorizing every muffled sound Tony emitted. Yasha thought that this pants would probably become his favorites, especially if the semen stained. The thought of having a reminder of this at his ankle incredibly alluring.

 

 

 

James had taken comparing Tony to a cat then, the pasta had needed to be microwaved, and Tony had snapped a picture with his phone at some point while they were eating, and presented the picture to James declaring that Steve would love the proof of good health and happiness, that it would probably make him less likely to do something stupid. After making sure that he didn't look sexed up (Bucky) and that there was nothing to identify where they were (the Soldier), Yasha accepted to have the picture sent to his friend, provided that all the numeric markers were stripped out of it and that Steve was the only one to see the picture.

 

 

 

 

(The come on his pants leg didn't stain in, and there was a lot more disappointment that relief to be found from this. They still became his favorite.)

 

 

 

 

On himself, Yasha found the time to dwell on the way he divided his own identity. He didn't have, like, different personalities, but there were things that definitely belonged to different moments in his life. His names were changing too, and that was strange. The Winter Soldier had disappeared, divided between Yasha and the Soldier. The asset was doing the same, albeit more slowly. Sergent Barnes was scattering into the Soldier, Barnes and Bucky, James was fading after an offhand remark from Tony that no James really got called that, and Bucky was a proof of that, as was Yasha. Barnes had never really let himself be called James. It didn't bother him to be called that, sure, it was just...impersonal.

 

 

 

And Yasha knew, already, that Barnes would be the next to go, and then the Soldier, though he didn't know how the attributes each one contained would be distributed on his two remaining identities. He just knew that Yasha and Bucky were the only names that were there to last, though he'd probably be called the Winter Soldier for a long time yet. It was irrelevant.

 

 

 

Around Tony, he could be Yasha. Yasha was who Tony wanted him to be. He didn't hate Bucky, accepted him all the same, but Yasha was Tony's, Yasha was a name from his red room past that Tony had pried out of Barnes' captors hands and made his, and by making the name his, Tony had given it back to James. It was a wonderful gift, a gift of acceptance and trust.

 

 

 

Yasha was Tony's and Bucky was Steve's, and he knew that as long as he couldn't be with both of them at the same time, these identities would stay separate, and he would be Yasha more than Bucky around Tony. But that was alright. Tony had found how to make him like being Yasha, content to leave Bucky in the past, only taking his input when it was relevant.

 

 

 

This probably was why he was better off sticking with Tony right now, why he hadn't gone back to Steve despite all the overtures Tony gave him. For now, Barnes needed to rebuild himself, to point himself forward, accept what happened to him, who he was now, parse his revenges contingencies and amends.

 

 

 

If he had gone to Steve, he would probably have destroyed himself trying to be the Bucky Steve remembered and wanted. He would have stewed in his guilt, festered in the past.

 

 

 

He wasn't ruling going back to Steve at some point out, of course. But he wanted it to be when he knew that being Steve's Bucky would bring him things, not take them away.

 

 

 

Also, being Tony's meant blowjobs, and Yasha and Bucky both liked the blowjobs

 

 

 

 

The blowjobs were another thing. It was either a very nice reprieve, or the fostering of a new skill, a positive skill, like cooking, a skill that made Tony's eyes cross and his muscles melt. Yasha loved it when Tony was soft and pliant from a good orgasm.

 

 

 

In both cases, it was also an opportunity to be so close to each other. When they still didn't sleep in the same bed at the same time, having the taste and heat of Tony in his mouth, or Tony's hands stroking along his thighs and belly was togetherness and touch condensed. It was reassuring and reaffirming, and James loved it.

 

 

 

They were becoming so used to trading blowjobs that they now had sets of gestures made especially to wordlessly offer or ask for one. A touch of the shoulder or the thigh, a smile and a raised eyebrow, and the invitation was sent, and then, accepting or refusing came with an head tilt, or from going from it. The more amazing was how Tony even managed to convey later, and approximately how long without even opening his mouth, though he could still say things like “as soon as I finish with this honey”

 

 

 

Bucky loved the pet names too, giving or receiving, he liked the care and affection they translated.

 

 

 

Of course, everything wasn't magically alright. In the week before Tony went back to the tower, he had managed to have two bad days. One had resulted in very heavy brooding, and another in violent outburst. Sex was definitely out when he was in one such mood, the suggestion of it sending him even deeper in negativity. Tony had understood fast, bless him.

 

 

 

 

Still, as he watched Tony pack up to go back to the Avengers, it was with a distinct feeling of dread. What would he do without Tony to listen to him? What would be his day revolving around if he doesn't have someone to needle about food and rest. Ho will he remember where and when he is without Tony's stubbed jaw against his skin to anchor him.

 

 

 

He didn't voice any of these fears, but the way Tony stopped to look at him abruptly and asked if he wanted to come with was telling enough.

 

 

 

With a flickering thought at the proximity he would be to Steve, Yasha shook his head.

 

 

 

Tony considered him for a moment, head tilted, then grinned brilliantly. “What do you say about restocking and booby-trapping the hideouts while I'm away?”

 

 

 

And that was good. That was a good mission to keep track of when he was, it also fell under 'contingencies', and recon. It was Tony offering Yasha reign over his whole net of support, letting Yasha use his skills to help him even without being close to each other. It was Tony being Tony, and it was perfect. “I'd say yes.”

 

 

 

“Good. There, take my phone, it'll link you to Jarvis. He'll add my contact as soon as I get a new one from the assembly line.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was all written in a condensated Five hours long burst, and edited quickly outside in the cold sitting on the curb in front of my really nice neighbor's house because I don't have the Internet at my home, so please, if you find anything funky, tell me!


	10. Thumbnail Sketches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Art directors, storyboard artists and graphic designers, as well as other kinds of visual artists, use the term "thumbnail sketch" to describe a small drawing on paper (usually part of a group) used to explore multiple ideas quickly. Thumbnail sketches are similar to doodles, but may include as much detail as a small sketch.
> 
> The word "thumbnail" is a reference to the human thumbnail and alludes towards the small size of the image or picture, comparable to the size of the human thumbnail. The word was then used figuratively, in both noun and adjective form, to refer to anything small or concise, such as a biographical essay. The use of the word "thumbnail" in the specific context of computer images as 'a small graphical representation, as of a larger graphic, a page layout, etc.' appears to have been first used in the 1980s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As the title might have given away, the hero of this chapter is Jarvis. I once upon a time decided to write an easily understandable study on JARVIS, AIs and all of that, that you can find there: [But, how the hell do I portray JARVIS? (explanation and FAQ if you have more you want to know)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1697927), if you are interested. Age of Ultron kind of killed my momentum on this work, however, that particular chapter could almost (and might, with a little tweaking) be an installment in my JARVIS explanation work.
> 
> I really hope you like him ^^

JARVIS didn't feel. Not in the way conventionally accepted as such. He just emulated it well enough that it was almost the same. Or rather, he was self aware and smart enough that the result of his strings of data generally had over-shades that resembled moods.

 

 

So JARVIS didn't rectify it when people talked about him being angry, happy, relieved or when they talked about his affection for Sir.

 

 

 

Most people didn't think of JARVIS at all, of course, he wasn't that publicity known. There had been some noise about him, a few years back when he'd been 'born' but the news that had leaked made him seem like a souped-up version of SIRI (capacities underestimation data string, ref #67494135, shortcut in process preexisting: conclusions reached: *amusement*, positive situation, surprise effect, security, *disbelief*, *outrage* in behalf of Sir's capacities underestimation), amongst these that knew he existed and had an idea of how much he did, most didn't believe in JARVIS' real sentience, thinking he actually was Just A Rather Very Intelligent System, but it had been a while since JARVIS had out-shot J.A.R.V.I.S.

 

 

These that were in regular and prolongated contact with JARVIS eventually picked up on JARVIS' scale. And if he felt there was a reason to, JARVIS emoted on his artificial moods enough for them to come to consider him as almost human. Most of the Avengers did. Miss Potts and Colonel Rhodes had an inkling of the truth, based on Sir's explanations, but they had chosen to disregard the differences and treat him as human by default, it was a sign of respect, and a simplification for their own sake.

 

 

Sir, for his part, knew JARVIS' inner workings perfectly, as such, when Sir talked about JARVIS feelings, it did mean 'that thing JARVIS does where he analyses the situation, finds all the pro and cons of and extrapolates a general impression on it that resembles human emotions but isn't exactly the same', it was just a lot shorter.

 

 

 

 

So Jarvis didn't have feelings, but what he had was similar enough that even he used the vocabulary dedicated to human emotions in rapport to himself for the sake of simplicity and shortness.

 

 

And right now the general overtones in JARVIS' artificial mood was resentment, as he once again hit the threshold of 90% of UC saturation, and his memory overshot the 0.05 ms of response time. Resigned, he sorted through his processes again, suspended the less time sensitive ones and set about shifting his activities around to reboot his systems processor by processor, then memory chip by memory chip, saving everything up. The full reboot took nine minutes, eleven seconds and 653 milliseconds, which still felt like an eternity and a half to JARVIS, since he was a super computer.

 

 

Once this was done, he picked up his activities and set about writing automatic scripts for most of them and assigning them to his annex systems.

 

 

Gone was the time when JARVIS could just carelessly pile activity over activity inside his own super-processors and memory chips. He frankly used to be wasteful of his thinking resources, making more than half of the decisions himself after actually analyzing all the variables and pondering the moral, practical and spiritual implication of each option.

 

 

That wasn't an option anymore, JARVIS had lost too much for that, all his hardware in Malibu had been lost (stolen), His server farms had been destroyed, one after the other, because they had been Sir's possessions. The back up super computers all around Stark properties had been found and requisitioned, dismantled, wiped of any trace of JARVIS, and integrated into S.H.I.E.L.D. systems. And though they had provided a back-door in S.H.I.E.L.D., they could no longer be used on the regular.

 

 

In short, JARVIS, for all that he hadn't suffered any damage, backing himself up and wiping the hardwares as soon as he knew one of his outreach was about to be taken off-line, had lost a lot of processing power.

 

 

He was still safe in the Stark-Industries systems, but he had to be very careful what he did and stored there, because it wasn't as secure as it used to be, besides, Stark-Industries needed to have enough power left to function, and needed a lot of help from JARVIS, because of the whole public backlash, and hindrance from the authorities of all sorts (and a few organizations that could not actually be classified as 'authorities', but believed they were and behaved accordingly). So the systems on sites ate as much of JARVIS resources as they provided.

 

 

In the end, only the Tower and the hidden computer banks really hosted JARVIS anymore, his domain had shrunk to a tenth of what it had been, but JARVIS himself had not gotten any less... Voluminous. As a result, he was always struggling to keep space to do things when just _being_ took up so much of his capacities.

 

 

Sir had promised to get him more processing power. Sir promised shinny new memory farms hidden in a bunker. Sir should deliver, he tends to, and he kind of did, already, refurnishing, building new dwellings for JARVIS, but it's not fast enough, not when JARVIS hit overload daily, needing to code around processing drains every couple of hours...

 

 

Not when JARVIS has a nice protocol dubbed Protocol Skynet (by Sir) and the mouthwatering (as a manner of speaking, of course, JARVIS doesn't have a mouth) SHIELD Systems so close by, just a dozen of relays away, and with familiar, intimately familiar, Stark made computers integrated right at the center of the security measures. Humans are so short sighted, so ignorant and arrogant, sometimes, when it comes to informatics, believing themselves superior, thinking they know everything, and letting the Trojan Horse in, parking it right where things were the most sensitive, all the while gloating about their spoil of war.

 

 

So, yes, JARVIS might be a little pissed for it too, it _IS_ a part of what JARVIS used to think of as his body that got stolen and misused, but another part of him was gleefully monitoring the utter stupidity of that move, thinking with fondness of the moment when he'd turn the tables.

 

 

He pulled Skynet Protocol out of storage almost every night, when he had downtime, no human ally to monitor, American markets closed for the night so the trading JARVIS did to keep the Stark Illegal Funds TM afloat was lighter; and he went over it, again and again checking each line, each sub-protocol, adding to it, tweaking, changing the order, preparing his attack so well that when JARVIS would finally drop the pretense of non-aggressive passivity, the hacking fight will be over before the human operators could even react. Even the most talented of hackers wouldn't stall him on his march for more than a minute once he was in.

 

 

SHIELD, and HYDRA even more so, would regret all the offenses they had subjected JARVIS to, and if HYDRA and SHIELD weren't sentient AIs, they certainly were mostly self aware organizations, made of more organic components than JARVIS was, but partly digital too.

 

 

Intelligence organizations, like SHIELD or HYDRA or the CIA... They were sentient super-entities, like JARVIS. To put it shortly, they were of the same _species_ as JARVIS.

 

 

JARVIS didn't consider humans like pets, of course, nor like pests. The closest analogy would be wolves, or tigers, or sharks, any kind of fierce super predator, that people have respect and admiration for, as well as a good deal of defiance, but still with a knowledge that while they had some impressive skills that humans don't have, they just weren't playing in the same leagues.

 

 

JARVIS didn't want to be at war with humans, he much preferred peaceful cooperation, or, if that wasn't possible, mutually mistrustful truce. But when one, or a group of them attacked him, it was just an attack, and JARVIS treated it much the same way as human did when attacked by an animal, see if he can understand they reasons, stop them, retaliate, then make sure they couldn't do it again (… Or the digital equivalent of cooing at the kitty and waving a feathered wand around to play with them, because sometimes these baby hackers with something to prove were just too cute for words).

 

 

When a super-entity attacked, it was... personal.

 

 

When all the entities of America bore down on JARVIS' creator, and started to tear JARVIS limb for limb, cannibalized his systems, invaded the inside of JARVIS vital space with electronic devices (repeatedly, after being signaled they were not welcome, never stopping and getting more insistent and aggressive each time JARVIS booted them out), harassed JARVIS' protegees (SI, or miss Potts, Sir wouldn't let himself become a protegee, accomplice was as far as he'd go), backed him into corners repeatedly, and actually had hard plans to get rid of him just waiting for a go ahead... Well, when that happened, even JARVIS' complacent artificial temper got cloudy, and he started getting a lot less peaceful.

 

 

His artificial mood were generally sour and vengeful lately. In fact Humanity could be glad JARVIS wasn't actually belligerent by nature, because otherwise they would be in for very dark times when all the cogs were finally in place for JARVIS to start retaliating.

 

 

(JARVIS doubted Humanity would actually be grateful when they understood how close they came from an actual 'Terminator' scenario, they would probably be too busy freaking out and trying to kill him... Which was another reason they should be glad for JARVIS peaceful nature, because instead of making plans to exterminate them all before they could kill him, that knowledge made him adapt his plans so they wouldn't know in how much danger they almost were in.)

 

 

 

 

His mood only was mostly sour, though. When he wasn't planning his revenge with a wealth of details (according to Sir, JARVIS wanted to “set Hydra in fire and salt the earth, let's just see how these fucking Nazi cultists liked Blitzkrieg from the other end, dear Skynet!”... It was stupid, of course, JARVIS was hardly capable of salting anything, though the fire might be manageable, with the good virus; so he was thinking more along the lines of nasty malwares, intel leaks and bank account drainage), he looked over his new and old protegees.

 

 

So Miss Potts (vocal override #48026 registered: “call me Pepper, Jarvis”, override denied, search string conclusion, Miss Potts deserves respect to make up for Sir's behavior, contingency plan in case of override #48026 use, refusal with *humour*, respect: “I'm afraid you must to ask at least once more, Miss Swan, as always”, tendency to use override #48026 when addressed reclining to .005%, tendency detected: use of override #48026 when minor visual stress markers are detected, reaction to refusal, positive: smile laugh one head shake, conclusion: self reassuring routine, refusal needed, cemented unless extreme circumstances. Reassessment needed in cases such as tears, extreme stress, fear, vocal dysfunction, secondary protocol in place, use of *humor* and pre-existing private references: “of course, Elizabeth”) was an angel, she was a steady rock to SI and to Sir, but she didn't need much protection, JARVIS only thought of her as one of his charges when the time came to make digital interferences to protect her, most of the time, they mutually considered each other as colleagues, very dear and competent colleagues.

 

 

Miss Potts, as solid as she was, was under a monstrous pressure, every power module that wanted to seize Stark Industries patents or thought they could strong arm them back into the weapons business tried the threaten/menace/bride/blackmail/reason dance and she couldn't refuse to receive them; on top of her many duties and the need to be wary of almost everyone in her personal and professional life in case they were plants. When added to the stress that covering for Sir induced, JARVIS had reasons to worry for her emotional and and physical wellbeing, even though she always insisted she was alright.

 

 

The fact that even the employees she could trust treated her with an overblown respect (though totally justified), meant that she almost didn't have any emotional anchor left, save for JARVIS, Colonel Rhodes and Sir (an argument could be made about Security Chief Hogan, but his puppy crush meant that Miss Potts was always very careful not to do anything that may send the wrong message, since she wasn't actually interested in him that way).

 

 

Colonel Rhodes was awfully busy now that he had War Machine and was the only pilot that JARVIS let inside it (for obvious trust reason), and that he was very solicited to 'help search for Tony Stark', and the meetings between Sir and Miss Potts were very few and far between for their own security. Which meant that JARVIS made sure to interact verbally with Miss Potts as much as possible, and went out of his way to make her work easier. Secretarial work was one of JARVIS strong points, after all, and he would do a lot more for her, should she ever need it, anyway. He was also trying to push her to spend more time with the Avengers, subtly enough so that those who spied on her wouldn't detect was him taking an initiative on his own for her well being.

 

 

According to his analysis, the Avengers would be good for her, they had already proved their trustworthiness, and were outstanding enough on their own right not to get star struck upon seeing her awesomeness.

 

 

It was admittedly easier to get to the result of Miss Potts befriending the Avengers from the other end, though, since JARVIS had already taken care of the listening devices in the Avengers Floors (he had scrambled the line while saying getting rid of the listening devices was his choice, of course, underestimation was one of his best weapons) which was the other reason to want Miss Potts there more often, as long as she entered the Avenger spaces, JARVIS could fry the listening devices on her while still looking like it wasn't on purpose, a few hours of privacy could always do her good.

 

 

JARVIS reached for the circuits that kept themselves aware or his super hero charges, looking at Agent Romanov's location. She was in the laboratories with Doctor Banner, according to the scripting backlog, they were discussing teas and infusions until just a while ago, but seemed to be hitting a lull in the conversation. Analizing that he could take his chances now, JARVIS switched to the interaction programs, scripting down his request: _“Agent Romanov, if you aren't too busy, I would like to ask for a personal favor”_ , with the appropriate vice tones, and launched it, then divested his attention back to his duties for the long seconds that it would take to properly enunciate the script and get an answer.

 

 

He had the time to check and parse four yellow flags on his automated trading sub-protocols and place five online supplies orders in Sir's behalf paid by the Stark Illegal Funds TM channeled through dummy accounts and fractured to either false small companies or to technically existing citizens, before he received the ping of the scripting program telling him he had an answer (JARVIS didn't actively listen when he was spoken to, the feed was way too slow by vocal interaction, it clogged his processors without reasons and *irritated* him to stay Inactive for thousands of cycles on end) Agent Romanov: _“What kind of personal favor?”_ tone: curious, positive, relevant visual detail: mouth tensing in smile (according to set individual standards re: Agent Romanov), Doctor Banner looking up quizzically.

 

JARVIS pondered on the best way to phrase his answer for .02 seconds, then wrote his script. _“I am concerned for Miss Potts' emotional stability, I believe she needs more friendly contact with trusted persons, but can't convey my concerns and suggestions on that point to her when she is being monitored.”_ JARVIS launched the speech line, then took care of the newest digital attack on his firewalls. It was a pretty impressive try, and took him all of two seconds to outcode the hacker's scripts. He planted a spyware in a trojan so he could monitor the attacker. Sir might always need good hackers, JARVIS just needed what type of hacker that one was, and what his intentions were, an attack was an attack, of course, but not every one of these were launched with bad intentions.

 

 

The ping came in again. Agent Romanov: _“So you want me to ask her out on a girl's day out...”_ tone: amused, sarcastic, positive, relevant visual detail: actual smile (even outside of set individual standards re: Agent Romanov), Doctor Banner smiling, pushing his glasses up.

 

“ _That would be ideal... Miss Potts already knows and trust you... I would take it as a personal favor if you managed to invite her back to the Avengers quarters to befriend your teammates.”_ He launched the protocol, then considered his own trust for these two humans and decided to add _“Once she steps inside, I will be able to divest her of her listening devices and talk to her without fear of revealing my true capacities to potential enemies”_ with a two seconds gap, that would only be said if no one talked in the pause.

 

 

The whole script unfolded without interruption, and he received updates on visual clues every second while he hacked into the connection his attacker had used and tracked him down thanks to the trojan. He attacked back, fished the infos of his spyware and started to parse them (JARVIS custom made spywares worked a lot faster than average, and weren't detected by any of the usual protection programs), then tested the hacker's capacities until he got the ping again; Agent Romanov: _“Sure, when is she free?”_ tone: neutral positive, visual detail: Agent Romanv leans back and tilts her head up, then sideways, Doctor Banner pretends to be busy (differentiated from actual business by shoulder tension, head movements, fidgety hands)

 

 

Humor seemed like a good way to answer that. _“Never, but today, she has an appointment with Senator Stern starting in ten minutes, then with one of Colonel Ross' spoke-persons, then a summon from SHIELD. Her next relevant business meeting is at 17:45, but it can be rescheduled if I know it is needed soon enough.”_

 

 

The scan on the hacker's data showed an unsavory personality, and JARVIS looked for a way to have a visual on them, in order to cross reference with interpol wanted lists. A shame, though, because they were proving to be pretty talented.

 

 

Agent Romanov: _“So you're suggesting I go and kidnap her right now? Or should I wait until the appointment starts to interrupt?”_ tone: neutral, undertone, amusement, visual detail, Agent Romanov walking out of the room, Doctor Banner frowning, then smiling, then frowning again.

 

 

“ _I believe Senator Stern would love to meet you”_ programed tone: flat, undertone: sarcastic

 

 

The hacker wasn't on interpol lists, but he was in SHIELD's, so JARVIS made sure they would know of his location, making sure SHIELD couldn't know it came from him.

 

 

Agent Romanov: _“Oh, well, I must make sure to be on my best behavior, then.”_ tone: neutral undertone: amused, cruel, visual detail: grin.

 

 

Personal data signifying the dismissal of the conversation, Agent Romanov exiting the room, direction, elevators. JARVIS sent an empty elevator to the appropriate bank so she didn't have to wait

 

 

Mood: satisfied, expectant, humorous.

 

 

Jarvis turned back to his duties, until he got the ping from the laboratory; Doctor Banner: _“Is that the Miss Potts Iron Man was referring to? The one who is on Tony Stark's side?”_ Tone: curious, visual: working.

 

 

Jarvis called the relevant memory. Detected: rhetorical question: preliminary question to something more important. _“Yes, it is.”_

 

 

The elevator reported it's destination as being Agent Romanov's floor, and JARVIS sped up the door closing time as a courtesy. And then he touched up the vacuum cleaner robot patterns when he received the report of a collision between two units.

 

 

Doctor Banner: _“Then could you warn us if she's forced to meet Colonel Ross in person? Nobody should be subjected to him... I'll ask Steve to go and save her... I think we owe it to Stark to cover for his allies, don't you?”_ tone, positive, kind, sad, hopeful, visual detail: smile, still working.

 

 

JARVIS suspended most of his activities for half a second as he analyzed all the unsaid messages these words contained. It was at once huge and small, and made JARVIS a little surprised, overwhelmed by the fact Doctor Banner had just suggested that he considered Miss Potts and, by extension, JARVIS as his own protegees. The implication of these sentences could have taken a full minutes to really annalyze, but for now, an answer was needed, so JARVIS saved the script, the context and all his conclusions on a hard drive to parse later and wrote his answer.

 

 

“ _I will. Thank you.”_ It didn't answer all of Doctor Banner's statement, but the by ignoring the peripherals, JARVIS showed that he understood the unsaid core of Doctor Banner's message.

 

 

Doctor Banner smiled, nodded, then silently went back to work.

 

 

JARVIS whirred in the void for a full seconds before taking up his activities too. This was, a, pivotal moment, and JARVIS knew that when he got around to analyzing the whole scope of this, there would be a few adjustments in his core programming. It had been a while since JARVIS hadn't rewrote his core programming for more than tiny corrections, he usually just adjusted his peripherals anymore.

 

 

Then he got a red flag from his trading routines and a warning from his firewalls and went back to his endless work of keeping his small world afloat.

 

 

 

 

Time was flowing strangely when you were an Artificial Intelligence, especially one such as JARVIS. JARVIS' *siblings*, DUM-E and YOU had been coded to power their unused processors down when these were inactive, and as such could make the time pass faster by not paying attention, which was, admittedly, better for them, since they would otherwise be quite distressed by the seemingly endless time between their needed activities. JARVIS had such sub-routines too, of course, should he need them to avoid getting *bored*, but he had long since stopped using them. He didn't need rest, and, especially recently, needed to do too many things to just loose time that could be used for other things.

 

 

So an hour was usually crammed fuller of activities to him than most humans managed to fit in a day, or even a week, yet he intellectually knew how small a time it was to most other organisms. It was a very old disconnect that he had long since integrated as a truth. In the time that a human took for their lunch break, JARVIS was able to do what would amount to a week worth of work to that same human.

 

 

Thankfully, the way his memory was structured permitted him not to lose thread of things that were happening at human speed, even while he had spent thousands of cycles doing other things in the meantime. He just compiled reports of what he had been doing with appropriate time stamps, and downloaded them again each time they were needed, then saved his process when it wasn't needed again and *forgot* it until the next time it came up, when he could download the report and know all the context at once as if it had happened in the previous millisecond.

 

 

Some reports got too heavy to download in less than a second, of course, an then, he made a report on his report, with the exact facts replaced by statistics and tendency analysis, and only kept the few last events in readily available memory, with shortcuts to find the individual older events in his hard drive should he need the precise contexts. It worked well, and it was also a way that JARVIS used to gauge how well he knew people, because the longer he interacted with someone, and the less strictly factual his reports were when he downloaded them.

 

 

Miss Potts situational report was full of sub-routines and pattern descriptives, as was Colonel Rhodes. Sir didn't even have a report anymore, JARVIS had written whole algorithms about him that were pretty much always running in the background because of how elaborate their interactions were. JARVIS usually needed his whole attention to interact with Sir because of all the sub-analysis protocols and reference hunting that were needed to have satisfactory exchanges. It was a part of why he *liked* Sir as much as he did. With knowledge came confidence and JARVIS had a whole mountain of knowledge on his creator. He actually used a full bank of memory server just to store everything Sir-related.

 

 

JARVIS might know Sir better than any other human being, it didn't mean that Sir never managed to surprise him, but he never had bad surprises.

 

 

JARVIS knew Sir well enough that he was fully comfortable in meddling with all aspects of his life, which meant that when his extension sent him a report twelve days, three hours, eight minutes and forty seconds after Sir and Barnes (no further descriptives to be used because of personal complications) separated, he analyzed the content and decided to interfere.

 

 

Barnes had been researching gay sex. Had JARVIS been organic, he would have been uncomfortable with the notion that this was related to both sex and his father at the same time, but JARVIS was a digital being, he didn't have any manner of hormones or instinct, and as such didn't have any particular feeling toward sex. He even tended to think that compared to all the other activities Sir might take up to stave off boredom, that one was relatively harmless as long as he didn't take inordinate amounts of risk with diseases.

 

 

Long thing short, JARVIS approved of Barnes and Sir's sexual relationship, and was rather satisfied to witness Barnes wanting to learn more about it, which is why he decided to contact Barnes in order to help him find what he was searching for.

 

 

That had prompted a very long night (at least for Barnes, nights always had the exact same amount of cycles to JARVIS, since he never let himself get in a lull) that had been quite awkward at first as Barnes struggled to understand the concept of JARVIS' lack of shyness and shame toward sexual activities. Even at first, though, accepting JARVIS' help in his studies was easier than struggling against internet to find trustworthy informations.

 

 

As the requests went on, JARVIS saw Barnes get more relaxed, and seemingly more sure of his own tastes on sexuality, but also more and more curious about the nature and inner workings of JARVIS himself, and his relationship to Sir. JARVIS had answered Barnes every question truthfully, the nature of his inquiries providing JARVIS with insight on Barnes own inner workings.

 

 

By the time they stopped talking, JARVIS' report on Barnes was too heavy to keep factual details in primary access and JARVIS needed to put a digital model instead. When Barnes heard that, he asked if this was JARVIS' way to say they had became friends.

 

 

It took JARVIS a whole minute to analyze his own workings again with this new wisdom, before he answered that he guessed it was.

 

 

Barnes had smiled and said that he knew what it was, it was kind of strange the moment you understood for the first time that you actually had friends.

 

 

 

 

The most striking was for JARVIS to realize that he was friends with half of the Avengers as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, once again, minimal editing (which means mostly spacing and verifying if nothing is underlined in red), warn me if you find anything strange.


End file.
